scholarly journals Psychological ownership: Development of an instrument

2013 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chantal Olckers

Orientation: Psychological ownership emerged recently as a positive psychological resource that could be measured and developed and that could affect the performance of organisations.Purpose: The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to measure psychological ownership in a South African context.Motivation for the study: It was found that previous instruments for the measurement of psychological ownership lacked the ability to grasp the extensive reach of psychological ownership.Research design, approach and method: A quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted on a non-probability convenience sample of 713 skilled, highly-skilled and professional employees from various organisations in both the private and public sectors in South Africa.Main findings: Although a 69-item measurement instrument was developed in order to capture the proposed seven-dimensional psychological ownership construct, it became evident when analysing the data that a four-factor model comprising 35 items was suitable.Practical/managerial implications: If a sense of psychological ownership toward an organisation could be established amongst its employees by addressing the factors as measured by the South African Psychological Ownership Questionnaire, organisations could become enhanced workplaces and, as a result, sustainable performance could be promoted and staff could be retained.Contribution/value-add: The instrument for measuring psychological ownership in a South African context could serve as a diagnostic tool that would allow human resource professionals and managers to determine employees’ sense of psychological ownership regarding their organisation and to focus specifically on weak dimensional areas that could be improved.

2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Colette Lourens ◽  
Leon J. Van Vuuren ◽  
Riëtte Eiselen

Orientation: Professionals, employed in organisations, operate within professional and organisational contexts serving different stakeholders. Subsequently, professionals may experience tension or conflict between their role as professional and employee.Research purpose: To establish the measurement of the perceptions and experiences of industrial psychology (IP) professionals, employed in South African organisations, with regard to Organisation-Professional Conflict (OPC) as well as the antecedents associated with this phenomenon.Motivation for the study: Although the extent to which professionals experience OPC is well documented for medical and accountancy professionals, the extent to which IP professionals experience this phenomenon remains unclear.Research design, approach and method: A structured questionnaire was developed and applied as a cross-sectional survey to all registered South African IP professionals employed in organisations. Responses based on the N = 143 self-selecting respondents were captured and utilised for statistical analysis.Main findings: OPC in the IP profession can be considered as the incongruence between professional organisational roles and duties, and their responsibility to adhere to professional obligations. Professional autonomy and strategic alignment were found to mitigate the occurrence of OPC, whereas power tension and compromise of professionalism seem to exacerbate the occurrence thereof.Practical/managerial implications: The research might create an awareness of the existence of OPC amongst the respective stakeholders. Knowledge of OPC may have implications for professionals who render their professional services to organisations.Contribution/value-add: The findings may inform formal professional associations, industrial psychologists employed by organisations, their employing organisations, and the governing board, about the nature and extent of OPC.


2015 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marita Heyns ◽  
Sebastiaan Rothmann

Orientation: Research concerning trust relationships on the interpersonal level, particularly when studied in dyadic relationships from the follower’s point of view, is relatively scarce. Only a few researchers have attempted to link multiple dimensions of trust in the same study.Research purpose: This study examined the dynamic interplay between trust propensity, trustworthiness beliefs and the decision to trust, as perceived within dyadic workplace relationships. Motivation for the study: No studies, as far as the authors are aware, have ever attempted to use a combination of Mayer and Davis’s well-known assessment of trustworthiness and Gillespie’s measure of behavioural trust within the same study. By including measures of main antecedents and the actual decision to trust in the same study, the multidimensionality of trust can be established more concretely.Research approach, design and method: A cross-sectional survey design with a convenience sample (N = 539) was used. The Behavioural Trust Inventory and the Organisational Trust Instrument were administered.Main findings: Results confirmed the distinctness of propensity, trustworthiness and trust as separate main constructs. Trust was strongly associated with trustworthiness beliefs. Trustworthiness beliefs fully mediated the relationship between propensity and trust. The observed relations between propensity and trustworthiness suggest that individuals with a natural predisposition to trust others will be more inclined to perceive a specific trust referent as trustworthy.Practical/managerial implications: Leaders should realise that their attitudes and behaviour have a decisive impact on trust formation processes: if they are being perceived as trustworthy, followers will be likely to respond by engaging in trusting behaviours towards them. Tools to assess followers’ perceptions of the trustworthiness of the leader may provide useful feedback that can guide leaders.Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to scientific knowledge regarding the influence of propensity to trust and trustworthiness on trust of leaders.


2021 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristy Leask ◽  
Shaun Ruggunan

Orientation: Employee agility and resilience are central to the flourishing of employee and organisational life. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic amplified stressors and added new challenges for employees in South Africa. The study reported here provides a temperature reading of the agility and resilience of South African employees in the context of the pandemic.Research purpose: The aim of this study was to engage in a temperature reading of South African employees’ agility and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.Motivation for the study: The study was motivated by the need to understand how South African employees fare in terms of their agility and resilience levels in the context of profound social and economic disruptive events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.Research approach/design and method: A cross-sectional survey design was used employing quantitative methodologies. A total of 185 permanently employed respondents from South Africa were conveniently sampled. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data.Main findings: Whilst respondents reported high resilience and agility capacity, the findings also suggest that respondents’ gender, age, upskilling intentions, size of employer, organisational communication and individual renewal strategies influence their resilience and agility behaviours.Practical/managerial implications: The study prompts a discussion on how practitioners can better serve the wellness agenda of organisational life during sustained periods of organisational stress.Contribution/value-add: This study extends the theoretical and practical debate on employee agility and resilience in South African context.


2010 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen Koekemoer ◽  
Karina Mostert ◽  
Ian Rothmann Jr

Orientation: The interference between work and personal life is a central issue in the 21st century as employees attempt to balance or integrate their involvement in multiple social roles.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to, (1) develop new items for a more comprehensive work−nonwork interference instrument, (2) evaluate the newly developed items to retain those items that accurately capture the different dimensions and (3) eliminate undesirable items from the different subscales in the instrument.Motivation for the study: Although the interaction between work and personal life has received extensive attention in the work−family fields of research, various theoretical, empirical and measurement issues need to be addressed.Research design, approach and method: A cross-sectional survey design was used to collect the data.Main findings: Initially, 89 items were developed. During the pilot study among mineworkers (n = 245), 41 poor items were eliminated on the basis of descriptive statistics, inter-item correlations, item-total correlations and the qualitative investigation of items highly redundant in terms of wording. Thereafter, the instrument (48 items) was administered to 366 support and academic personnel at a tertiary institution. Using Rasch analyses and item correlations, 18 additional items were eliminated, resulting in a 30-item instrument (15 items were retained to measure work-nonwork interference and 15 items to measure nonwork-work interference).Practical/managerial implications: A major theoretical limitation to the measurement of work−family interference relates to the dimensionality and inconsistent measurement of the directionality of interference.Contribution/value-add: With the development of this new instrument, several of the theoretical and measurement limitations voiced by previous researchers have been addressed, providing this instrument with distinct advantages over previous work−family instruments.


Author(s):  
Leanri Cunniff ◽  
Karina Mostert

Orientation: Workplace bullying has negative physical and psychological effects on employees and several negative effects on organisations. Research purpose: The purpose of the research was to determine the prevalence of workplace bullying in South Africa and whether there are differences in employees’ experiences of bullying with regard to socio-demographic characteristics, sense of coherence (SOC) and diversity experiences.Motivation for the study: This study intended to draw attention to the implications and negative effects of workplace bullying and to determine whether employees with certain socio-demographic characteristics, SOC levels and diversity experiences experience higher levels of bullying than others do.Research design, approach and method: The researchers used a cross-sectional field survey approach. They used an availability sample (N = 13 911). They computed frequencies to determine the prevalence of workplace bullying and used a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and analyses of variance (ANOVAs) to determine the differences between the groups.Main findings: The results showed that 31.1% of the sample had experienced workplace bullying. The researchers found significant differences between all the socio-demographic groups. Participants with higher levels of SOC, and who experienced diversity positively, reported lower levels of workplace bullying.Practical/managerial implications: Employers need to realise that workplace bullying is a common problem amongst South African employees and should ensure that they have the necessary prevention methods.Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to the limited research on the prevalence of workplace bullying and its relationship with SOC and diversity experiences in the South African workplace.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Doret Botha

Orientation: South Africa has been suffering from persistently high levels of unemployment since 2008. The youth is regarded as the most at-risk group in the South African labour market and unemployment amongst the youth is considered one of the most critical socio-economic problems in South Africa. Increasing one’s employability is essential to securing employment and enhancing one’s well-being.Research purpose: This study aimed to explore the self-perceived employability of undergraduate students at a South African university.Motivation for the study: Currently, there is a scarcity of published research on the self-perceived employability amongst undergraduate students at higher education institutions in South Africa.Research approach/design and method: The study was conducted within a positivistic research paradigm. A quantitative-based cross-sectional survey design was used. Convenience sampling was used to select the students who were included in the survey. Data were collected through a web-based survey, using a standardised coded questionnaire that consisted of a five-point Likert-type scale.Main findings: The results indicated that the respondents were relatively confident about their internal employability, but they were less confident about their opportunities in the external labour market.Practical/managerial implications: Understanding one’s employability and the accompanied issues creates awareness of one’s potential, skills and knowledge to become a successful citizen and employee.Contribution/value-add: The study shed light on the self-perceived employability of undergraduate students at a South African university and consequently contributes to the existing literature on employability in the South African context.


Author(s):  
Sibangilizwe Ncube ◽  
Mark H.R. Bussin ◽  
Lukas De Swardt

Orientation: Return on the investment in variable pay programmes remains controversial because their cost versus contribution cannot be empirically justified. Research purpose: This study validates the findings of the model developed by De Swardt on the factors related to successful variable pay programmes.Motivation for the study: Many organisations blindly implement variable pay programmes without any means to assess the impact these programmes have on the company’s performance. This study was necessary to validate the findings of an existing instrument that validates the contribution of variable pay schemes.Research design, approach and method: The study was conducted using quantitative research. A total of 300 completed questionnaires from a non-purposive sample of 3000 participants in schemes across all South African industries were returned and analysed.Main findings: Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, it was found that the validation instrument developed by De Swardt is still largely valid in evaluating variable pay schemes. The differences between the study and the model were reported.Practical/managerial implications: The study confirmed the robustness of an existing model that enables practitioners to empirically validate the use of variable pay plans. This model assists in the design and implementation of variable pay programmes that meet critical success factors.Contribution/value-add: The study contributed to the development of a measurement instrument that will assess whether a variable pay plan contributes to an organisation’s success.


2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Doris N. Asiwe ◽  
Carin Hill ◽  
Lené I. Jorgensen

Orientation: Understanding the job demands and resources experienced by workers in an agricultural organisation.Research purpose: The objective of this study was to examine the validity and reliability of the Adapted Job Demands and Resources Scale (AJDRS) as well as to establish prevalent job demands and resources of employees in an agricultural organisation. Demographic differences were also investigated.Motivation of the study: The agricultural sector of any national economy plays a very important role in the overall welfare of the country. Identifying the prevalent job demands and resources in an agricultural organisation is therefore of paramount importance since the negative consequences of employees experiencing very demanding jobs with few resources have been well documented in stress literature.Research approach, design and method: A cross-sectional survey design was used. The sample consisted of 443 employees in an agricultural organisation. The AJDRS was used to measure the research variables.Main findings: The findings of this research show evidence for the factorial validity and reliability of the AJDRS. Statistical differences were found with regard to the job demands and resources experienced by employees in different positions.Practical/managerial implications: Interventions to improve the perceived job demands and resources in the organisation should focus on physical resources (equipment).Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to knowledge concerning the job demands and resources that are prevalent in an agricultural organisation in South Africa.


2014 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Natasha Khamisa ◽  
Karl Peltzer ◽  
Dragan Ilic ◽  
Brian Oldenburg

Orientation: Nurse recruitment to and participation in empirical research is increasingly important in understanding and improving nursing practice. However, the low participation and recruitment rate amongst nurses is not well understood.Research purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate three research recruitment methods for their impact on recruitment and participation rates amongst South African nurses.Motivation for the study: A limited number of studies exist that formally evaluates different recruitment strategies to improve participation in research amongst nurses within developing contexts, especially South Africa.Research approach, design and method: Participants were recruited using three different methods. Of the 250 nurses randomly selected and invited to participate in a cross-sectional survey, 201 agreed and 162 (81%) returned the questionnaires.Main findings: Nursing management participation in the recruitment and data collection process produces more favourable response rates. Reminders and the use of shorter questionnaires also aid higher response rates.Practical/managerial implications: Reminders as well as face-to-face recruitment strategies (especially by a familiar person) successfully improved participation rates amongst South African nurses in this study.Contribution/value-add: This study identifies some strategies that could be used more widely to increase the recruitment and participation of South African nurses in research whilst potentially improving their work situation.


2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christa Welthagen ◽  
Crizelle Els

Orientation: Work engagement, burnout and stress-related ill health levels of individuals, suffering from depression, who are unsure whether or not they suffer from depression, or who do not suffer from depression, have not been investigated in South Africa.Research purpose: The main objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence of depression amongst employees in South African organisations and the relationship of depression with specific well-being constructs.Motivation for the study: Organisations should know about the prevalence of depression and the effects this could have on specific well-being constructs.Research design, approach and method: A cross-sectional design was followed. The availability sample (n = 15 664) included participants from diverse demographics. The South African Employee Health and Wellness Survey was followed to measure constructs.Main findings: The results showed that 18.3% of the population currently receive treatment for depression, 16.7% are unsure whether or not they suffer from depression and 65% do not suffer from depression. Depression significantly affects the levels of work engagement, burnout and the occurrence of stress-related ill health symptoms.Practical/managerial implications: This study makes organisations aware of the relationship between depression and employee work-related well-being. Proactive measures to promote the work-related well-being of employees, and to support employees suffering from depression, should be considered.Contribution/value-add: This study provides insight into the prevalence of depression and well-being differences that exist between individuals, suffering from depression, who are unsure whether or not they suffer from depression, and who do not suffer from depression. 


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document