Management

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Assessing emotional labour practices amongst lecturers in private higher education institutions in KwaZulu-Natal.
(2017) Maharaj, Vidna.; Ruggunan, Shaun Denvor.
The purpose of this study is to assess emotional labour practices amongst lecturers in private higher education institutes. This study focuses on private higher education institutes in Kwa Zulu natal, specifically lecturers that are exposed to an environment which is emotionally demanding .Private higher education institutions are the main interest in which academics may experience emotional labour. For this reason the various private higher education institutions is the focus of this study. Literature on emotional labour was discussed. This terms plays an important role in higher education institutions, where lecturers are seen to be providing more of a service in this profession rather than just playing the role of an academic. Both the private higher education sector and emotional labour is discussed extensively and reviewed in relation to one another. Thereafter emotional regulation processes and concepts, coping mechanisms and management support is discussed as part of the literature. The research methodology applied was qualitative research. Qualitative research allows the researcher to make sense of people experiences and interacting with them, thereafter making use of qualitative research techniques to collect and analyse information (Blanche, Durrheim &Painter, 2006). A case study was used. This case study focused on the academic staff at private higher education colleges. Given that the research undertaken in this study is qualitative; a case study is also the most appropriate research design considering the contextual, iterative and phenomenological nature of the study. This study used in- depth interviews as a data collection instrument. Interviews are used to elicit imperative information during research, interviewing is more natural form of interacting with people rather than making them fill out a questionnaire, this is the reason as to why interviews fit well with the interpretive approach to research (Blanche et al., 2006) .In- depth interview allows the interviewer to extract maximum information needed from participants.The findings were that academics need to constantly regulate emotions in order to function effectively at work. There is a high degree of emotion suppression in individuals that work in private higher education institutions. Most individuals feel that there are no support structures to able them to cope better within this service related work environment. Stress and exhaustion was evident within this environment. For future studies, the researcher recommends a support structure for lecturers within private institutes and additional management support towards employee mental wellbeing including emotional support programmes.
The assessment of organizational commitment of academic staff at University of Kwazulu-Natal (UKZN).
(2018) Ntuli, Cebile.; Ramluckan, Trishana.
Organisational commitment refers to as the degree which an employee finds synergy in the goals and values of an organisation and is willing to exert great effort to stay within the organisation. This study aimed to assess organizational commitment among academic staff in the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The study adopted the quantitative research design. The questionnaire survey that consists of organizational commitment items, namely affective commitment, normative commitment and continuance commitment has been utilized to collect data from the academic staff. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), was adopted to statistically analyze and interpret the data collected from the respondents. The Organisational Commitment Model or the theoretical framework, which is the threecomponent of organizational commitment model by Allen and Meyer (1990) was used, as it is appropriate for this study. This study identified the imperative factors which influences an employee’s commitment, the organizational commitment antecedents, as well as the factors that elevate organizational commitment among employees. There were fifty academic staff from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, who participated in the study. From the analysis it was reported that from the three forms of organisational commitment, affective commitment was found to be the most significant type of organisational commitment that drives the academic staff of College of Law and Management at UKZN.” Individuals that reflected an affective orientation towards the organisation and have psychological bond between the employee and the organisation, hence; the employee identifies with the organisational values and increases job involvement of the employee in the organisation. Few participants depicted low normative commitment. This indicated that the workforce will not retain their organisational membership because of the sense of obligation hence, can seek better employment opportunities if the employer does not meet their expectation and needs. Study findings revealed a low continuance commitment level among the academic staff. These employees perceived greater employment alternatives hence, will not commit to the organisation because of the scarcity of employment however; due to the passion and the benefit accrued whilst working in the organisation.
An assessment of practices used in the recruitment and selection processes of academic staff at the University KwaZulu-Natal.
(2018) Mkhize, Nomagugu Favourite.; Phiri, Maxwell Agabu.
Recruitment and selection processes are human resource management functions that have critical influence on the performance of organisations in terms of realising set ultimate goals. The purpose of the study was to investigate recruitment and selection practices used at the University of KwaZulu-Natal focusing on the existing recruitment and selection methods, challenges faced, and strategies to address the challenges. A case study research design and quantitative research methodology were used. The target population for this study were all human resource staff in the College of Law and Management Studies. Probability sampling in particular census sampling was used to select all respondents. The sample size for this study was 92. Data was collected using questionnaires and analysed using SPSS version 21.1. The findings show that the university has a recruitment and selection policy. The regularly used recruitment and selection methods are; newspaper advert, internal recruitment, human resource office/labour office, employee referrals, radio advertisement and internet recruitment in this order. The findings show that the recruitment and selection practices have influence on the majority of the academics’ performance. Challenges to effective recruitment and selection practices include: poor human resource planning, ineffective job analysis, low competency levels on the part of academic staff, cost of recruitment and selection of academics, and poor working conditions of academics. It is therefore recommended that before the university commence recruitment and selection processes, all job profiles should reflect the actual requirements of all jobs.
An investigative study on the relationship between work motivation (Intrinsic& Extrinsic) and work engagement in a South African higher educational institution.
(2018) Muranda, Alpha Adonis.; Maharaj, Ashika.
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between Work Motivation (Intrinsic & Extrinsic) and Employee Work Engagement among Durban University of Technology academic staff. The economy in the 21st century has become knowledge based which is highly global, informative, technology based, and increasingly concerned with society and the environment. However, in higher education institutions (HEIs), which are considered the hub of knowledge, the retention of knowledge workers, commonly referred to as academics, has become a crucial issue. Talent retention and employee turnover, therefore, are major concerns HEIs. Thereby, the need for this study to investigate the relationship between work motivation and employee engagement within the Higher Education Institute of Durban University of Technology (DUT). A quantitative research approach was used for this study to address the research problem as well as to answer the research questions. A sample (n= 318) was drawn from employees of the Durban University of Technology Academic staff. Data was collected through standardised questionnaires. Two standardized questionnaires, the Utrecht Work Engagement Survey (UWES), and Work Preference Inventory (WPI) for motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) were used to obtain data from the participants. The results from the analysis of this study indicated a significant positive correlation between employee engagement and intrinsic motivation. The study also concluded that there is a negative correlation between extrinsic motivation and employee engagement. In relation to employee engagement with other demographic variables used in this (length of service, educational qualifications and age), length of service does not make any statistically significant contribution to employee work engagement. The analysis of this study concluded that educational qualification does not make a statistically significant contribution to employee work engagement. In relation to age, the study found that it made a statistically significant contribution to employee work engagement and was the second strongest determinant after intrinsic motivation. The findings point out that DUT academics prefer intrinsic factors to enhance their work engagement. Findings of this study provides instruction to DUT management about the institution’s efficiency and effectiveness in relation to motivation and work engagement. DUT organisational objectives will be met by providing (intrinsic) motivation which will make employees more engaged. DUT need to foster a conducive work environment that enables employees be intrinsically motivated to be engaged in their jobs. However, the researcher also recommends that more extensive research investigation into the relationship between work engagement and motivation in relation to corporate culture can be explored.
The relationship between wellbeing and academic staff performance at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
(2020) Nene, Xolile Nomzamo.; Vajeth, Taahir Ahmed Akbar.
This study intend to explore the correlation among wellbeing and academic staff performance in the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Universities are faced with the responsibility of formulating new knowledge or adding to the body of knowledge through publication of research work. Academic staff have three fundamental roles they are expected to perform and these are teaching, conducting research, offering administration support and community development service. Academic performance at the university is evaluated by looking at the extent to which the institution was able to achieve its academic goal based on these fundamental roles performed by academic staff (Bakker & Derks, 2010). The wellbeing of academic staff at universities has been threatened by high levels of stress and burnout due to their demanding occupation. However, there is an attraction of others to join the profession due to its advantages such as having autonomy with academic work, high level of flexibility at work, overseas trip to study and the ability to learn from others by attending conferences (Barkhuizen & Rothmann, 2008). Researchers such as Barkhuizen and Rothman (2008) has found that high level of stress and burnout is common among academic staff and this could be as a result of working under pressure. Stress and burnout can trigger other health problems such as an increase in smoking, alcohol abuse, drug abuse and other physical health issues such as heart diseases and psychological problems (Barkhuizen & Rothmann, 2008). The wellbeing and performance of academic staff is the subject that has been looked at by various scholars. The researcher has discovered that numorous of these studies have been conducted in western universities, therefore, this study addressed this gap based on the cultural context these wellbeing studies were conducted. The researcher identified that there is a lack of research that tends to look at wellbeing and performance among academic staff in South African universities. This study examined five objectives, and these are; the influence of physical, mental, psychological and social wellbeing on academic staff performance. It also looked at the effectiveness of wellbeing programs in promoting academic staff performance as the last objective. The mixed method approach was considered as the suitable research method to be applied in this research. The mixed method approach is the combination of both quantitative and qualitative research methodology into one research project. The main reason of mixing quantitative research and qualitative research in one research project is to gain the unique strength of each methodological approach and apply them in a research project. The University of KwaZulu-Natal has five different campus but the researcher only used two campuses that are more convenient for the data to be collected. The researcher used the systematic sampling method to select the participantsi of the research study when collecting the quantitative data. Self-designed research questionnaires were distributed among the participants that were chosen and the researcher used SPSS version 24 to analyse the data. The interpretation of the results were done using both descriptive (i.e. mean, minimum, maximum and standard deviation) and inferential statistics. The results were presented in accordance with the stated objectives, namely: physical needs; mental wellbeing; psychological wellbeing; social wellbeing; wellbeing programmes and employee wellbeing and performance. The purposive sampling method was the method that was used by the researcher to select participants who will participate in the qualitative study. Interviews were conducted among the participants who were selected to participate in the study and the researcher analysed and interpreted the qualitative data herself. The researcher was able to have 6 participants to participate in qualitative research. Interviews were conducted by the researcher and the responses were recorded. Respondents that could not be part of the interview were given the research questionnaires to complete at their own convenient time. The researcher also distributed quantitative questionnaires to 250 academic staff in UKZN at Westville and Howard College and only 200 questionnaires were returned. The overall result of both quantitative and qualitative result indicated a positive state of physical, mental, psychological and social wellbeing among academic staff. The only concern that was stated clearly in both the quantitative and qualitative result is the lack of participation on wellbeing programs by academic staff at the university. The various reasons were stated by the academic staff as to why they do not participate in these wellbeing programs offered by the university and they are discussed in the qualitative study.
A study of performance management at UKZN’s School of Built Environment and Development Studies.
(2019) Mkhize, Bright Sipho.; Ramluckan, Trishana.
Background: Performance management is about the whole process of monitoring and evaluating the performance of employees. Armstrong & Baron (1998, cited in Kiragu et al., 2006) it is also about giving appropriate feedback, whether positive or negative, to individual employees, with the intention of improving their performance. At the University of KwaZulu-Natal, individual employees create performance agreements which are their key performance areas that are linked to their job descriptions, and also to the goals of the University. The Line Managers and employees both need to agree on these, because it then requires the employee to be working towards achieving these in a particular performance cycle. During the performance cycle, it is required that the Line Manager monitors the performance of the employee and, if there are things to be improved upon, then the employee should be informed of such. Employees need to be encouraged to do better throughout the cycle. Aim: The aim of this study was to describe the perception of the academic staff of the performance management system in the School of Built Environment and Development Studies at a selected University in KZN. Methodology: The researcher used qualitative research for this study. The reason for choosing this research method was because the researcher wanted to describe the academic staff perception of the performance management system at a selected University in KZN. The researcher collected evidence on performance management and the impact this had especially in the higher education sector. This was done through structured interviews, the use of available university information (performance management system information available to the human resources department) and observations. Findings: The results from this study indicated that the performance management system was perceived as a system to capture the monitoring of staff performance, check employees’ quality, assess research output, and employees’ evaluation. Although performance management was positively perceived by academic staff, several challenges were reported to hinder effective implementation of performance management, and they included insufficient knowledge and skill on performance management, lack of on-the-job training or workshops, challenges in rating the staff in performance management, ineffective use of the institution guidelines on performance management. Conclusion and recommendations: The impact of effective performance management on the institutional success is pivotal. It is essential that institutions ensure that academic staff is well trained and prepared to meet the demands brought by new innovative approaches.

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