Personality and Psychological Conditions in Relation to Job Engagement among Municipal Workers in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Authors: Mhlanga, Tatenda Shaleen
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Job stress -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Municipal government -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , D.Com (Industrial Psychology)
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/13729 , vital:39702
- Description: The efficiency of the public service delivery depends on the performance of the public employees. Due to high protest in the Eastern Cape due to poor service delivery, it is crucial to understand if the employees are engaged in doing their work. Although researchers have discovered many of the beneficial and positive consequences of job engagement, little is known about the multitude of antecedent factors that lead to employee engagement such as personality. The motivation of this study is to examine the relationship between the big five personality traits (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism) and job engagement (physical, cognitive and emotional engagement) among municipal employees working in the six district municipalities of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The study also looked at psychological conditions (availability, meaningfulness and safety) as a moderating factor between personality and job engagement. This contributes to the theoretical and conceptual knowledge of how job engagement can be enhanced through the hiring employees with certain personality traits and enhancing meaningfulness, safety and availability of psychological resources in the workplace. Survey questionnaires were used to collect data. Inferential analysis from SPSS was carried out to understand the relationship between the study variables. An overall model of the study was also identified through which showed the relationship on the study variables. The study findings show that openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness had a positive relationship with job engagement while neuroticism has a negative relationship with job engagement. All psychological conditions had a positive correlation with job engagement and when combined with the big five personality traits they added more variance in job engagement. The results validate aspects of Kahn’s personal engagement model. v The study recommends managers to switch from an intervention-based focus to a selection-based focus as municipalities can maximize their resources by being able to better predict job success early in the selection process as opposed to trying to maximize performance on a continual basis through interventions. In addition, management practitioners should regularly measure and track employee engagement for the effectiveness of strategic efforts to increase employee engagement to be monitored and evaluated
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- Date Issued: 2019
Violence: an exploratory study of the lived experiences of violent re-offending youth
- Authors: O'Connell, Tracy
- Date: 2015
- Subjects: Criminal psychology -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Violent crimes -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Ecological Systems Theory -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape , Violent offenders -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10948/5236 , vital:20823
- Description: Although much research has been conducted on violence, its effects, and which circumstances put an individual at risk of becoming a potential victim, there is a paucity of studies that focus on the perpetrators of violence. Much of the literature available on this subject is dated, providing information which is already dated and, frequently no longer relevant. This research has sought to explore and understand violent crimes from the psychological and emotional standpoint of the individual who perpetrated them. One objective of the study was to facilitate the development of a profile of youths who chronically commit crime, and more specifically crimes of violence. This study utilised the qualitative research design of Phenomenology, which allows for the exploration of the phenomena from the perspective of the participants. The sample for this study consisted of five male individuals who are currently incarcerated in a correctional institution situated in the Eastern Cape. The sample was chosen according to the non-probability purposive-sampling technique, based on their relevance to the study. The selected male offenders from the correctional institution ages ranged between 18 and 31. Specific criteria were identified against which participants were measured in order to be selected to participate in the research. Data was obtained from the participants via a questionnaire, a journal, and semi-structured interviews conducted by the researcher. Other data for the study was obtained from official documents. The study was embedded in the ecological theory of Bronfenbrenner, which provided the psychological framework in which to explain and understand the results of the study and the development of violence. The major findings of this study include; growing up violently, the reasons for violence, justificationa and perseptions of violence, society and the culture of 10 violence, and the environmental impact. These findings will contribute to the development of treatment programmes, which better facilitate the reformation and rehabilitation of criminals.
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- Date Issued: 2015
An analysis of the censorship of popular music within the context of cultural struggle in South Africa during the 1980s
- Authors: Drewett, Michael
- Date: 2004
- Subjects: Censorship -- South Africa Popular music -- Censorship -- South Africa Popular music -- Censorship -- South Africa -- History Popular music -- Social aspects -- South Africa Popular music -- Political aspects -- South Africa Popular music -- South Africa -- History and criticism Protest songs -- South Africa -- History and criticism
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:3350 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1007098
- Description: The censorship of popular music in South Africa during the 1980s severely affected South African musicians. The apartheid government was directly involved in centralized state censorship by means of the Directorate of Publications, while the South African Broadcasting Corporation exercised government censorship at the level of airplay. Others who assisted state censorship included religious and cultural interest groups. State censorship in turn put pressure on record companies, musicians and others to practice self-censorship. Many musicians who overtly sang about taboo topics or who used controversial language subsequently experienced censorship in different forms, including police harassment. Musicians were also subject to anti-apartheid forms of censorship,such as the United Nations endorsed cultural boycott. Not all instances of censorship were overtly political, but they were always framed by, and took place within, a repressive legal-political system. This thesis found that despite the state's attempt to maintain its hegemony, musicians sought ways of overcoming censorship practices. It is argued that the ensuing struggle cannot be conceived of in simple binary terms. The works of Antonio Gramsci, Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu, in particular, are applied to the South African context in exploring the localized nuances of the cultural struggle over music censorship. It is argued that fragmented resistance to censorship arose out of the very censorship structures that attempted to silence musicians. Textual analysis brought to light that resistance took various forms including songs with provocative lyrics and titles, and more subtle means of bypassing censorship, including the use of symbolism, camouflaged lyrics, satire and crossover performance. Musicians were faced with the challenge of bypassing censors yet nevertheless conveying their message to an audience. The most successful cases negotiated censorial practices while getting an apparent message across to a wide audience. Broader forms of resistance were also explored, including opposition through live performance, counter-hegemonic information on record covers, resistance from exile, alignment with political organizations and legal challenges to state censorship. In addition, some record companies developed strategies of resistance to censorship. The many innovative practices outlined in this thesis demonstrate that even in the context of constraint, resistance is possible. Despite censorship, South African musicians were able to express themselves through approaching their music in an innovative way.
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- Date Issued: 2004
Investigating systemic factors affecting science learning in Curriculum 2005 : case studies of two schools
- Authors: Wilkinson, Warren George
- Date: 1999
- Subjects: Curriculum change Curriculum change -- Case studies Science -- Study and teaching -- South Africa Curriculum planning -- South Africa Education -- South Africa -- Evaluation Competency-based education -- South Africa
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MEd
- Identifier: vital:1588 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1003470
- Description: The thesis illustrates the contention that an outcomes-based system with its underlying philosophy of social constructivism cannot operate effectively within a traditional school system. Restructuring of an institution is necessary to accommodate the outcomes-based system. Using the research instruments of interviews, questionnaires, journals, participant observations and collection of physical artefacts, two case studies investigating systemic factors as they influence science learning were conducted in two South African schools. The one school, St Sebastian's College, was an extremely well resourced school while the other, Mtunzini High School was a middle class school in comparatively deprived circumstances. Attempts were made to introduce an outcomes-based education course involving a group of grade 8 learners in the respective schools. Difficulties in implementation were encountered and at best only very limited success was achieved. There were two reasons for this. First, particularly in the case of St Sebastian's College, I designed a course which was over ambitious in that it was not suited to the developmental stage of the learners. Second, traditional schooling systems follow a perspective of education termed 'the structure of the disciplines' which fosters a system of rigid time tabling, compartmentalisation of subjects and emphasis upon summative assessment. In contrast, the curricula I designed involved a 'cognitive' perspective which required flexible time scheduling, integration of subjects and developmental assessment. The conflicts which arose include time constraints and resistant attitudes on the part of learners and teachers. The thesis culminates with some suggested steps to follow should a school community wish to restructure. These include a shared vision, employing organised abandonment, capacity building and commitment to a systemic perspective.
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- Date Issued: 1999
John X. Merriman : the making of a South African statesman (1869-1878)
- Authors: Gruber, R F J
- Date: 1961
- Subjects: Merriman, John Xavier, 1841-1926 , Statesmen -- South Africa -- Biography , South Africa -- Politics and government -- 1836-1909
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:2623 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1015002
- Description: With the possible exception of Hofmeyr and Schreiner, there is no Cape statesman whose career raises more tantalising questions than that of John X. Merr1man. Last Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, doyen of Parliamentarians, brilliant orator, versatile administrator, veteran politician, his public life stretched across fifty-five years of south African History. He entered upon it before the grant of Responsible Government, the discovery of diamonds and gold, and the awakening. of Afrikaner Nationalism; he departed from it on the eve of the Statute of Westminster, the establishment of Iscor and the coming to power of Hertzog and Malan. His contemporaries looked upon him as a man of immense knowledge and olympian ability. In the eyes of many his position as leader of the largest and oldest settled community in South Africa, not to mention his role as heir to the Cape tradition, made him the natural choice as first Prime Minister of the Union he had helped to establish. He was not called to office. Barely seventy, in the full maturity of his years, he withdrew trom active political leadership in the country of his adoption. He is hardly remembered today. This thesis seeks to contribute something to an understanding of the man and an assessment of his qualities by a study of his formative years. It attempts both to reconstruct his personality and analyse the nature of his statesmanship - not only by an examination of the role he played in the years under review, but also by an assessment of the part he failed to play. For this purpose both the structure of Cape politics and the ramifications of the various problems that presented themselves have been explored in greater detail than might otherwise have been the case.
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- Date Issued: 1961