An investigation of the intention to leave or stay of health care professionals at St. Andrews Hospital
- Authors: Amanambu, Rochelle Aneeta
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Medical personnel -- Job satisfaction -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies Medical personnel -- Job stress -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Case studies Hospitals -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Administration Hospitals -- Medical staff -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Hospitals -- Officials and employees -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape -- Turnover Health services administration -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Health planning -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:823 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011091
- Description: Background: The demand for and retention of talent worldwide is aggravated by revolutionary trends that include global competition, demographic changes and technological advances. In South Africa this phenomenon according to Frost (2002) is further challenged by the emigration of skilled people; the relative scarcity of specialist and managerial employees; employment equity and affirmative action procedures. But the development of strategies first requires an understanding of the factors which influence decisions to leave or stay particularly in rural and remote areas. St. Andrews Hospital is a rural district hospital in Ugu District, KZN. Its remoteness from urban areas and the lack of resources contributes towards challenges of attracting and retaining health care professionals to the area. It is the aim of this study to identify the ten most prevalent turnover and retention factors in a rural district hospital with the intention of making recommendations towards strategies to mitigate turnover and improve retention of health care professionals. This study will not only serve the local Human Resource Department but may also be used to inform district and provincial policies as well as departments’ decisions in the design or the review of current retention strategies aimed at reducing turnover. Method: The survey method was used to collect the primary data by distribution of self-administered questionnaires to Health Care Professionals at St. Andrews Hospital. Of the one hundred and fifty questionnaires distributed, one hundred and seven were returned (71% response rate) and formed the basis of the study. Results: Based on the impact scores, the top three turnover factors identified were, the way the organisation is led by top management (0.934); the size of the workload (0.862); and the way problems are dealt with by managers in the organisation (0.817). No statistically significant relationships were found between turnover factors and biographical variable. Availability of quality health services was ranked as the external factor that had the highest influence (78%) on turnover, while geographical location was ranked the lowest. The main reason given by respondents for leaving their previous employment was promotion, followed by distance and personal/family reasons. The top three retention factors identified from the impact scores were the quality of relationships with colleagues (1.698); the amount of support received from managers and colleagues (1.484); and the level of engagement and involvement with the job (1.390). This demonstrates that the salary package often thought to be a first priority factor Mobley, Horner and Hollingsworth (1978); Mobley (1982) and Herzberg (2003) is far less of a determining factor at St. Andrews Hospital than management support, job involvement and person-organisation fit as well as the social relationships formed in the workplace. A positive relationship was found between leadership and job dimension factors at the 1% level of significance. This supports the strong social bond (person-organisation fit) formed in the work environment between management and colleagues that supports retention and increases level of commitment. An important result of the study was that 46% of the respondents were thinking of leaving the town within the year while 29% were considering resigning from St. Andrews Hospital within the year. Conclusion: The results reveal a complex interaction of factors impacting on turnover and retention. The Human Resource Management function has a pivotal role to play in improving its ability to attract and retain professionals through developing comprehensive strategies based on external and internal and environmental factors. The study conveys to the St. Andrews Hospital management that turnover and retention factors are unique to the location and the working environment and differs amongst Health Care Professionals – this should be deliberated on when formulating Hospital Human Resource retention policies.
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Organisational culture and leadership competencies in ABSA Business Bank: Enterprise Business, Gauteng
- Authors: Funani, Simphiwe Vincent
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: ABSA Bank Corporate culture Organizational behavior Leadership Leadership -- Ability testing Business enterprises -- Personnel management Executives -- Training of Organizational effectiveness
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MBA
- Identifier: vital:824 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1011286
- Description: From Integrative summary: This document consists of three sections namely, an evaluation report (section 1), literature review (section 2), and research methodology (section 3). The evaluation report sets out the terms of reference for the research as well as identifying the objectives of the research. It also contains a summary of the literature review section, as well as a research methodology section summary. The literature review section contains a detailed review of the literature used in this study. This section sets out by reviewing existing literature on the topic of leadership, discussing the key elements of organisational culture and includes a short discussion on the typologies of culture. The Competing Values Framework as an organisational culture typology is discussed in greater detail, since it forms the foundation upon which the measurement and data collection tools for this research are founded. The research methodology section explains the research methodology and design employed in this study. This section also addresses some of the ethical considerations for this research, as well as how the researcher addressed them. There is also a brief discussion on the limitations of the research and the application of the results. This research focused on a business unit within Absa Business Bank, named Enterprise Business Gauteng Region, with the aim of investigating the “current organisational culture” in the business unit and the leadership competencies profile of its 11 Sales Managers. This was to provide the basis and departure point for the strategic organisational culture change that the new business unit head would have wanted to effect as the business has a history of non-performance, which the new business unit head aims to change. In order to diagnose the “current organisational culture” type, an organisational culture measurement tool based on the Competing Values Framework was used. The Competing Values Framework is a four-category organisational culture typology developed by Cameron and Quinn. The framework is based on two dimensions, how stable or flexible the organisation is, and how externally or internally focused it is. This framework was also employed to establish the leadership competencies profile of Sales Managers, as observed and experienced by the frontline staff, as well as the “desired organisational culture”, as intended by the new business unit head. Through hypotheses testing, the research revealed a statistically significant difference in perceptions of culture between males and females in the business unit. The perceptions of the female frontline staff about the “current” business unit culture indicated that they find it not to be empowering and less allowing for individuality and risk taking when compared to the male staff. The research also concluded that there is no statistically significant difference between leadership competencies associated with the four categories of the Competing Values Framework in the business unit. Comparisons between the “current” and the “desired” organisational culture revealed a misalignment. The main recommendations to the new business unit head were to get the leadership competencies of the Sales Managers aligned with the “desired organisational culture” state, and drive a purposive organisational culture change effort. To support this culture change, the espoused values of the business unit would need to be aligned to the desired culture state. To address the differences in perceptions of culture between males and females the business unit head would need to be mindful of the greater need to empower women either in their current roles, or by way of promotions to senior roles.
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The development of a personal philosophy and practice of servant leadership : a grounded theory study
- Authors: Taylor, Simon Michael
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Hilton College (Pietermaritzburg, South Africa) , Servant leadership , Grounded theory , Community and school -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Student volunteers in social service -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal , Educational leadership -- South Africa -- KwaZulu-Natal
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:1199 , http://hdl.handle.net/10962/d1012986
- Description: The purpose of this study is to develop a substantive grounded theory explaining the development of a philosophy and the practice of leadership amongst young adults who had attended Hilton College and whom were exposed to their servant leadership development programme. The grounded theory method in this study was developed using conventions identified by Strauss and Corbin (1990) and relying upon a collection of incidents noted during interviews with former students, teachers, housemasters, headmaster and Hiltonian Society board members. In total thirty-six interviews were conducted over a period of four years in South Africa, the United Kingdom and Kenya. Using the grounded theory methodology, an understanding of the theoretical model emerged through the development of a personal philosophy and the practice of servant leadership. Related to the central phenomenon of individual leadership philosophy and practice, the causal condition of opportunity to lead, influenced how the individual philosophy and practice emerged. Strategies used by the participants to nurture their philosophy and practice of leadership were the leadership development programme, community service, feedback and reflection. The data identified the intervening conditions and conditions relating to the context of the leadership philosophy and practice. The consequences of developing a leadership philosophy and practice were related to leadership behaviour; self-esteem; growth; follower relations; empowering of others; and relationship to institutions. The theoretical model illustrated the holistic nature of an individual’s leadership philosophy and practice. In this instance, the nature of the data revealed that the individual's leadership philosophy and practice that developed amongst the participants was predominately servant leadership. The different approaches to leadership development were scrutinised with the intention of locating the grounded theory that developed in this study, within the available literature. The literature did provide some useful insights, in particular the social field theory of Bourdieu (1998), which offered a more encompassing explanation and showed much promise in providing an understanding of leadership development. Wheatley's (1999) interpretation of field theory further explained the influence of servant leadership in leadership development. Finally, the researcher developed a set of propositions and recommendations for practice and future research and discussed the value of this research.
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