Department of Industrial Psychology

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Academics in lockdown: A gendered perspective on self-esteem in academia during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown
(MDPI, 2023) Walters, Cyrill; Ronnie, Linda; du Plessis, Marieta
This qualitative research explores the experiences and sense-making of self-worth of 1857 South African women academics during the enforced pandemic lockdown between March and September 2020; the study was conducted through an inductive, content analysis process. Since worldwide lockdowns were imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, women academics, in particular, have reported a unique set of challenges from working from home. Gender inequality within the scientific enterprise has been well documented; however, the cost to female academics’ selfesteem, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic, has yet to be fully realized. The findings of the study include negative emotional experiences related to self-worth, engagement in social comparisons, and the fear of judgement by colleagues, which were exacerbated by peer pressure.
An integrated model of the impact of individual cultural values and the mediating effect of job satisfaction, organisational commitment and perceived support on turnover intention
(University of the Western Cape, 2017) Mthembu, Oscar Sandile; Mahembe, Bright
Employee turnover presents a number of negative organisational outcomes, such as loss of human capital, skills, organisational memory and investment on employee training and development. Theory and empirical research have shown that the most immediate predecessor of employee turnover behaviour is turnover intention, or intention to quit. It is envisaged in this study that attracting and selecting employees who possess individual cultural value dimensions that are aligned with those of the organisation could impact positively on employee intention to stay in the organisation. The effect of job-related attitudes (i.e. employee job satisfaction and organisational commitment) on turnover intention has been established in a number of empirical studies. It is hypothesised in this study that Hofstede's cultural value dimensions of collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity and long-term orientation at individual level can help explain and predict job satisfaction and organisational commitment. In turn, job satisfaction and organisational commitment will decrease employees' intention to leave an organisation.
An intergrated model of the role of authentic leadership, psychological capital, psychological climate and intention to quit on employee work engagement: A comparative analysis
(University of the Western Cape, 2017) Balogun, Tolulope Victoria; Mahembe, Bright
Organizations exist for the primary aim of meeting particular objectives: innovation and advancement, customer satisfaction, profit making and delivery of quality goods and services. These goals are mostly channelled with the intent of demonstrating high performance crucial for the continued existence of the organization especially in these rapidly changing global economies. This target, however, cannot be achieved without the aid of employees in the organization. A plethora of previous studies have proven that efficiency, productivity, high performance and stability on the job can be better achieved when the employees are dedicated, committed to their work roles and experience work engagement. The experience of work engagement on the part of the employees is not a random event; it depends on a myriad of factors that include authentic leadership. Leaders have a cumulative change effect on their followers; hence, leaders in an organization can be termed as core drivers of employee engagement. Hence, it becomes imperative to seek to understand what authentic leadership as a construct has to offer to the workplace.
Assessment of the efficacy of the mechanisms for conflict resolution in employment relations at a multinational company in Nigeria : lessons from South Africa
(University of the Western Cape, 2021) Olaniyi, Olabiyi; Ile, Allen
An organisation or country that aims to experience industrial tranquillity and collaboration among social partners in employment relations must put in place an outstanding and potent conflict resolution mechanism. Within the context of labour relations, conflict is predictable in the workplace environment and the result could be a strike or lockout. This result can be avoided if there is an appropriate conflict settlement machinery on the ground. Overall, conflict resolution mechanisms must be centred around negotiation and dialogue which is an integral part of dealing with discord whenever it arises in employment relations. This study seeks to investigate the efficacy of mechanisms for conflict resolution in employment relations at a multinational company in Nigeria and South Africa. The study also examines the effectiveness of the machinery for regulating the affairs of labour relations statutorily or voluntarily. Additionally, the study undertakes a comparative analysis of different mechanisms employed whenever conflicts arise in both employment relations environments that are in South Africa and Nigeria. This analysis gives more insight into how conflict resolution mechanisms work in South Africa as compared to Nigeria. Moreover, the study explores the necessary tools and frameworks of legislative resolution instruments that lead to long-term reconciliation and peace thereby reducing the rate of disputes in employment relations in South Africa as well as Nigeria. A non-experimental descriptive research design that utilises a survey approach was adopted in the study. The research employed a mixed-method approach, that is, qualitative and quantitative data collection methods. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed to respondents in two organisations, 200 for each organisation in Nigeria, and South Africa respectively via online google forms. A total of 363 responses were returned for the quantitative data collection while a total of 20 respondents participated in online interviews as part of the qualitative data collection. Thus, the final aggregate sample size for this research was 383 participants. Results from the study indicated that the conflict resolution mechanism in South Africa functioned successfully compared to that of the counterpart organisation in Nigeria. Moreover, the study revealed that South Africa has a developed apparatus for managing industrial conflicts. possibly in Africa as a whole. This was found to be xi because of how the South African government rigidly pitched a high labour legislative framework and requirement concerning labour conflict resolution. This is intended to create a conducive and harmonious labour relations environment. It is assumed that introducing a similar legislative framework into Nigeria’s labour relations environment will also foster a more harmonious relationship amongst the parties and social partners. Finally, the study proposes and recommends that host environments of multinational corporations in Africa must continuously review their conflict resolution frameworks so that it serves as a guide for the operations of multinational companies that come to their countries. In addition, the study highlights that such mechanisms must make provision for opportunities for employees to feel that they are heard through sincere dialogue processes and effective communication channels between employers and employees. Overall, the study recommends that accommodating and congruent conflict resolution strategies must be encouraged among members of staff to facilitate a nonviolent labour relations atmosphere.
Authentic leadership, followership, and psychological capital as antecedents of work engagement
(Routledge, 2018) du Plessis, Marieta; Boshoff, Adré B
The present study investigated authentic leadership, psychological capital, and followership behaviour influences on work engagement of employees . Respondents were 901 South African employees within the healthcare industry organisation (n = 647) and mining industry (n = 254) . The employees completed questionnaires on authentic leadership, psychological capital, and followership behaviour, and work engagement . Results following structural equation modelling and mediation analysis suggest work engagement to be explained by the psychological capital of the employee rather than by authentic leadership qualities . Improving employee psychological capital has the potential to enhance the levels of work engagement of employees.
Authentic leadership, organisational citizenship behaviours, and intention to quit: the indirect effect of psychological ownership
(South African journal of Psychology, 2020) du Plessis, Marieta
The aim of this study was to explore the influence of perceived authentic leadership on followers’ citizenship behaviour and their intention to quit their jobs, and to examine the indirect effect of psychological ownership in the relevant relationships. The study used a cross-sectional survey design to gather data from a sample of South African service industry employees (N = 384). It employed structural equation modelling to test the hypotheses formulated. The study found that psychological ownership indirectly affected the relationship between authentic leadership and employees’ organisational citizenship behaviour and intention to quit. This study enables organisations to gain a better understanding of how a contextual resource such as authentic leadership behaviours can influence followers’ organisational citizenship and intention to quit through increasing feelings of ownership of the organisation.
Career competencies for academic career progression: Experiences of academics at a South African university
(Frontiers Media, 2022) Barnes, Nina; du Plessis, Marieta
An understanding of career competencies is critical for the progression of academic careers, as it influences the availability of adequate and capable academic staff at all levels within universities. The study aimed to explore and describe the career competencies that academics demonstrate to successfully progress in their careers, while theoretically underpinned by an integrated competency framework. This report is based on the qualitative experiences, gathered through semi-structured interviews of eight academic staff in various career phases, in a South African university. Data was thematically analysed, while a deductive modality was adopted to identify the competencies. The findings align very closely with the dimensions of the integrated competency framework, including reflective competencies: gap analysis, self-evaluation, social comparison, and goal orientation; communicative competencies: information seeking and negotiation; and behavioural competencies: strategy alignment, control and agency, university awareness, continuous learning and collaboration.
A confirmatory factor analytic study of an authentic leadership measure in Nigeria
(OpenJournals Publishing AOSIS (Pty) Ltd, 2020) Balogun, Tolulope V.; Mahembe, Bright; Allen-Ile, Charles O.K.
Authentic leadership has been identified as one of the competencies for effective leaders. Research purpose: The primary goal of the present study was to test, on a Nigerian sample, the psychometric properties of the Authentic Leadership Inventory (ALI) developed by Neider and Schriesheim. Motivation for the study: Various instruments have been developed to measure authentic leadership, with the ALI being one of the widely used questionnaires. There is a need to assess the reliability and construct validity of the ALI on a Nigerian sample owing to paucity of studies on its psychometric properties in this setting. Research approach/design and method: A non-probability sample consisting of 213 bank employees working in Nigeria was studied. The ALI was used to measure authentic leadership, and its reliability was evaluated using SPSS, while construct validity was assessed through confirmatory factory analyses in the Linear Structural Relations (LISREL) programme. Main findings: Moderate levels of reliability were found for the subscales of the ALI.
Counselling preparedness and responsiveness of industrial psychologists in the face of Covid-19
(AOSIS, 2021) du Plessis, Marieta; Thomas, Emma C.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought to the forefront the need for industrial-organisational psychologists (IOPs) and organisations to place an emphasis on employees’ mental and physical health at all times. The purpose of the research was to determine how prepared IOPs are to counsel employees during the pandemic and how responsive they are to provide counselling.It is not clear to what extent such counselling is being practised by IOPs in the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The cross-cultural comparability of tile 16 personality factor inventory (16pf)
(University of the Western Cape, 1996) Abrahams, Fatima; Mauer, K F
This study focused on the 16PF (SA 92), a personality questionnaire that was developed in the USA and adapted for South African conditions. The main aim of the study was to determine whether the scores of the 16PF are comparable in a cross-cultural setting in South Africa. The influence of age, language, socio-economic status and gender on the scores were also determined. The sample consisted of black, white, coloured, and Indian university students and were drawn from the University of Western Cape, University of Pretoria, University of Durban- Westville, and University of Natal To achieve the aims outlined construct comparability studies and item comparability studies were conducted. In addition, descriptive statistics were also calculated to provide a general picture of the performance of the various sub-samples. A qualitative study was also conducted to determine some of the reasons for the occurrence of item incomparability of the racial sub-sample. The results showed that the racial variable had the greatest influence on the scores obtained. Problems existed with the construct and item comparability of the 16PF when the different race groups were compared. In addition, significant mean differences were also found on the majority of factors when the scores of the different race groups were compared. The results of the qualitative study showed that participants whose home language was not English or Afrikaans had difficulty in understanding many of the words and the construction of sentences contained in the 16PF. The implications of using the 16PF in South Africa, with its multicultural population was outlined, taking the new labour legislation pertaining to selection into consideration. Finally, a number of options for test users, and users of the 16PF in particular were presented.
The development and empirical evaluation of a counterproductive work behaviour structural model in selected organisations in Zimbabwe
(University of the Western Cape, 2020) Gwamanda, Nelson; Mahembe, B.
The current study was motivated by the need to establish the factors that predispose leaders to engage in counterproductive work behaviours (CWBs) in organisations.
The development and empirical evaluation of a model of innovation in selected automotive organisations
(University of the Western Cape, 2022) Makarisira, Douglas; Mahembe, Bright
Psychological facets for innovation in automotive organisations received little or no attention from previous researchers. The current study was therefore motivated by the need to establish psychological factors and how they impact on innovation in automotive organisations. The 21st century calls for organisations to be creative and innovative if they are to overcome the economic, political, marketing strategies and competition challenges. Organisations need to seriously consider psychological factors among all their employees (from the leadership to the lowest level employee) if they intend to be innovative in the current economic global challenges. Literature has shown that for every business to succeed it should incorporate various psychological factors when developing an innovative culture, which underscores the importance of the current study.
The development of a career management intervention programme for academics in a South African higher education institution
(University of the Western Cape, 2022) Barnes, Nina; du Plessis, Marieta
The higher education sector, similar to all other industries, is subjected to unprecedented challenges outside traditional continuity threats, which include the global pandemic and COVID-19 regulations (World Health Organization, 2020) as a particular demonstration. Besides this global context, there is significant pressure on South African higher education to achieve national higher education goals. Achievement depends on the availability of adequate and capable academics at all university levels. Higher education institutions recognise the need to ensure the required academic pipeline to achieve their strategic objectives.
Effect of ethical leadership and climate on effectiveness
(AOSIS, 2017) Engelbrecht, Amos S.; Wolmarans, Janneke; Mahembe, Bright
ORIENTATION: The increasing prevalence of theft, sabotage and other deviant behaviours in the workplace has disastrous effects for organisations, such as lowered effectiveness, escalated costs and the organisation’s declining reputation. RESEARCH PURPOSE: The purpose of the research was to design and investigate the relationships among perceived leader effectiveness, ethical climate and ethical leadership. A further objective of the investigation was to validate a conceptual model clarifying the structural associations among the latent constructs in the South African corporate domain. MOTIVATION FOR THE STUDY: A successful leader is both an ethical and an effective leader. An organisation’s leadership is seen as the most critical element in establishing and maintaining an ethical climate in organisations. RESEARCH DESIGN, APPROACH AND METHOD: A convenient and multi-cultural sample comprised of 224 employees from various organisations in South Africa. The structure and content of the variables were analysed through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), beside item analysis. MAIN FINDINGS: Satisfactory reliability was found for all the measurement scales. The results of CFA demonstrated acceptable fit with the data for the refined measurement and structural models. The results of structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated positive relationships among ethical leadership, ethical climate and leader effectiveness. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Organisational leaders should take full responsibility for cultivating ethics through ethical leader behaviour and an ethical climate. By reinforcing these aspects, perceived leader effectiveness can be advanced, which will ultimately decrease corruption and other forms of counterproductive behaviour in South African organisations. CONTRIBUTION: The study provides further theoretical and empirical evidence that leadership effectiveness can be realised through instilling an ethical organisational climate in which ethical leadership is exhibited and encouraged.
An enquiry into the factors impeding the career advancement of women academics at Peninsula Technikon
(University of Western Cape, 1999) May, Charmaine. Elizabeth; Naidoo, Anthony
The aim of the study was to determine the factors that impede the career advancement of women academics at Peninsula Technikon, an academic institution in South Africa. There are many variables which need to be addressed systematically, but the present research focused on two factors: to determine whether women academics at the institution experienced difficulty in balancing career and family demands (role salience), and to determine which barriers impacted on the career advancement of women academics at the institution. Research interest in the influence of gender on advancement was stimulated by the relative scarcity of women at the top echelon of academic institutions. Women continue to be underrepresented among institutions of higher education and concentrated in the lower ranks, despite legislative advances and affirmative action. Studies indicated that many personal, social, and situational factors contribute to women being underrepresented in the higher echelons of the academic hierarchy and experiencing more occupational barriers in their academic careers than males. Family responsibilities have been reported as a significant obstacle to the advancement of women in the past. Many professional women find themselves trying to satisfy the responsibilities of a demanding career and home life The study investigated the level of participation, commitment and role value realization reported by women academics at the institution compared to the normative data gathered on the Life Role Inventory (LRI). The relative influence of participation, commitment and role value realization of home/family and working functions for women academics were also contrasted. The study also investigated the barriers experienced by women academics compared to the normative data gathered on the Career Barriers Inventory- Revised scales (CBI-R).
Evaluating the factor structure of the General Self-Efficacy Scale
(SAGE Publications, 2016) Nel, Petrus; Boshoff, Adre B.
Although the Sherer General Self-Efficacy Scale has often been used in clinical, personality, and organisational research, one of the major issues surrounding this instrument is that of an appropriate factor structure. In an endeavour to address the criticism levelled against this scale, this article draws on a study aimed at investigating the psychometric properties of the Sherer General Self-Efficacy Scale with respect to both its factor structure and estimates of reliability. A quantitative, cross-sectional research design with convenience sampling was used. A total of 295 aspiring chartered accountants who had sat one of their compulsory examinations completed the Sherer General Self-Efficacy Scale. Both the minimum average partial test and parallel analysis suggested that a unidimensional structure be investigated. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare two competing measurement models representing a three-dimensional factor structure and a unidimensional factor structure. Both models exhibited fairly similar levels of fit. To break this impasse, the Schmid–Leiman solution provided evidence that the Sherer General Self-Efficacy Scale consisted of a strong general factor which explained 76% of the variance. This study therefore concluded that general self-efficacy, as measured by the Sherer General Self-Efficacy Scale, may be treated as a unidimensional construct.
An evaluation of job crafting as an intervention aimed at improving work engagement
(AOSIS, 2020) Thomas, Emmarentia C.; Plessis, Marieta du; Thomas, Kevin G.F.
In the construction industry, a lack of engagement by employees can have serious and costly health and safety consequences. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether a job-crafting intervention could improve the work engagement of individuals employed in the construction industry. Because of tight deadlines and stringent requirements, managers in the construction industry are often unable to reduce the demands on, or increase the resources available to, their employees. Hence, if employees are to increase their work engagement, they need to exert personal agency by recrafting their own jobs.
Extending the nomological network of wellness at work
(Southern African Institute for Management Scientists (SAIMS), 2016) Becker, Jurgen R.; de Bruin, Gideon P.; Gyorkos, Christina; Rossier, Jerome; Massoudi, Koorosh
Modern-day organisations face rapid and continuous change. In order to deal with this rapidly changing and current hostile economic environment, most organisations have become increasingly dependent on a healthy and engaged workforce. As a result of the direct and indirect organisational costs associated with work wellness, the total well-being of the individual worker has become the focal point of many organisational interventions. Although work wellness is a multifaceted and continuously evolving concept, most studies have adopted either a pathological or a salutogenic (positive) perspective when examining the construct. Congruent with current thinking in vocational psychology, a balanced model of work wellness was conceptualised in this study, containing both salutogenic (work engagement) and pathological (burnout) constructs. Strong empirical support was found for the proposed balanced model of work wellness based on data collected from a sample of 854 employees working across various sectors of the South African economy.
Factors influencing student usage of an online learning community: the case of a rural South African university
(Inderscience, 2017) Chinyamurindi, Willie Tafadzwa; Mahembe, Bright; Chimucheka, Tendai; Rungani, Ellen
Technology adoption within higher education is becoming popular. This has often resulted in hubs of learning referred to as an online learning community. The success of such platforms is dependent on full system utilisation. The study draws on a quantitative empirical investigation into the factors that influence the adoption of an online learning community amongst 252 first year students at a rural university in South Africa. The results of the study show that a positive relationship exists between online course design and student ratings of perceived usefulness and perceived interaction (PI) concerning the utilisation and usage of an online learning community. Furthermore, the online learning community’s interface design was found to be positively related to ratings of perceived ease of use but not with PI. Based on these findings, interventions are proposed, which have ramifications in working within online learning communities to benefit both the student and the lecturer.
Factors influencing the career choice of undergraduate students at a historically disadvantaged South African university
(IP Publishing, 2015) Abrahams, Fatima; Jano, Rukhsana; van Lill, Burger
During the apartheid years in South Africa, career guidance amongst disadvantaged learners was largely absent and, for many, career choices were limited and governed by politics. Despite South Africa having celebrated 20 years of democracy, this situation has improved only slightly. Therefore, the aims of the study were to determine the factors that influenced students' career choice and to ascertain the possible barriers that impacted their decision. An adapted version of Myburgh's Career Choices Questionnaire (2005) was administered to 721 undergraduate students. The results showed that parents and loans or bursaries were the largest sources of financial support and that anticipated benefits influenced the students' career choice, with the potential for personal growth and development, for future high earnings and for promotion to the top of the organization the most important among these. Furthermore, participants rated visits from lecturers and brochures as the most prominent sources of influence.

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