Masters Degrees (Industrial Psychology)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Industrial Psychology) by browse.metadata.advisor "Boonzaier, Michèle"

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    Exploring the effects of job crafting on the engagement and burnout of South African primary school teachers during the coronavirus pandemic
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04) Hearn, Caitlin; Boonzaier, Michèle; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Industrial Psychology.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: Over time, the industrial and educational psychology literature has continuously shed light on the negative aspects of the teaching occupation in South Africa. Through these studies it has been found that teaching is a particularly stressful occupation. Teachers in South Africa regularly have to extend their occupational role to tackle issues that are beyond the scope of usual practice for primary school teachers. In some cases, these teachers need to address the healthcare, social and welfare needs of their students, amongst other issues. As with any organisation, the school environment represents an intricate balance of occupational stressors that, if not managed correctly, may cause strain and stress, as well as poor psychological health and well-being of employees. Researchers have found that, despite facing excessive job demands, some employees do not progress towards burnout. These employees have been shown to handle highly demanding and stressful working environments better than others. Instead of developing burnout, these employees are found to thrive in such challenging and taxing work environments. The employees who do not develop symptoms of burnout are said to instead experience a feeling of engagement with work, and have little to no intention to abscond from their occupation. The job demands-resources (JD-R) framework was used to guide this research in order to understand the well-being of teachers within South African primary schools during the Coronavirus pandemic. The overarching objective of this study was to establish a structural model and, through empirical testing, to test this proposed model. The proposed structural model is presented and tested within the context of recent literature to understand and rationalise how job demands; job resources and personal resources are related to engagement and burnout amongst South African primary school teachers. To evaluate the proposed hypothesis, an ex post facto correlational design was used. A total of 152 participants contributed to the quantitative data gathered for this study. Participants completed a self-reported electronic survey that was made of items from the 1) The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory, 2) the Utrecht work-engagement scale, 3) the Job demands-resources scale and 4) the Job-crafting sale. Overall, seven of the 12 hypothesised relationships were shown to be significant, with two of the non-significant relationships being related to the proposed moderating effects. In addition, hypotheses 11 and 12 were also found to be statistically insignificant. Hypothesis 11 concerned the moderating effect of job resources on the relationship between challenging demands and burnout, whereas hypothesis 12 examined the moderating effect of hindering job demands on the relationship between job resources and work engagement. Therefore, individuals involved in the school environment, including teachers, principals and school management, should be aware of the interacting effects of job demands and resources on burnout and engagement. In addition, these individuals should understand how job crafting can optimise job resources and decrease burnout, as proposed in this study. Using the results and practical implications of this study, these individuals can optimise the engagement levels of primary school teachers while decreasing burnout levels and thereby incur maximum benefits for the school environment as well as for the teacher. This research has been useful in providing insights into the antecedents of burnout and engagement amongst primary school teachers in South Africa, and the role that job crafting may play in these relationships, specifically during the Coronavirus pandemic. The research findings have far-reaching consequences for researchers, industrial psychologists and those involved in the school environment, such as teachers and principals. The findings provide insights into how teacher burnout can be managed.
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    Interpersonal conflict handling and employee engagement
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-12) Engelbrecht, Herman; Boonzaier, Michèle; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Industrial Psychology.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: The way organisations operated has changed dramatically in recent years. One of these changes is the increasingly interactive nature of work. In many instances, the organisation may require employees to work in teams or groups to produce a product or provide a service, as such teams are said to be capable of outperforming the most brilliant of individuals. For an organisation to benefit from such interactions, the organisation needs to have a highly competent and engaged workforce. However, whenever individuals are required to interact with each other, interpersonal conflict is most prevalent. Interpersonal conflict is the source that accounts for most of the workrelated stressors experienced by employees. Interpersonal conflict at work evokes negative emotions which contribute to low employee engagement and job dissatisfaction. Thus, interpersonal conflict at work, if not resolved, could also harm employee engagement and job satisfaction. In conflict situations, people tend to handle interpersonal conflict in different ways. These differences may be due to a variety of factors, including personality and emotional intelligence. Some conflict-handling styles are associated with more favourable outcomes regarding engagement than others. It is therefore important to investigate how these factors account for variance in an individual’s preferred conflict-handling style and the effect of these conflict-handling styles on employee engagement. An ex post facto design was used to test the hypotheses that were formulated in this research study. The data that were collected from 206 participants was quantitative in nature and was collected through means of snowball sampling. The online survey consisted of a test battery measuring engagement, conflict-handling styles, personality and emotional intelligence. This survey was administered online via a URL link. Employees were informed of the purpose of this study and were asked to participate in this study on a voluntary basis. Once questions on the survey had been completed and submitted, data were captured on an Excel spreadsheet ready to be analysed. Eight out of the 12 path coefficient relationships were shown to be statistically significant. Based on the results from the study, these include hypotheses 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11 and 12. According to these findings, individuals who make use of a problem-solving style of handling conflict will be more engaged in their work, while those who make use of a non-confrontational style of handling conflict are more likely to have low employee engagement. The results also show that a competing/confrontational style of handling conflict will have no significant effect on an employee’s engagement levels.
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    Predicting burnout and engagement in public secondary school teachers based on physical educational resources, positive organisational practices, psychological capital, work overload, and learner-to-teacher bullying
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-03) Pretorius, Annika; Boonzaier, Michèle; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Industrial Psychology.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: South African secondary school teachers, especially those in public secondary schools, face significant challenges in their work environment daily. A lack of the required job and social resources to do their work, as well as the bullying behaviour of learners, is leading to increasing strain that, in many cases, is resulting in employee burnout. For teachers to be able to create a positive learning environment amidst the challenges that they experience in the school environment, as well as to meet and overcome the problems in education, they must be resilient, motivated, vigorous and innovative, and show initiative. Research has demonstrated that teachers will only have the ability to display these qualities effectively if they are engaged in their work, their classes, and with their learners. The research-initiating question of this study thus was why there is variance in engagement and burnout among secondary school teachers in public secondary schools in South Africa. As such, the study aimed to examine the factors influencing perceived employee burnout and employee engagement among teachers within public secondary schools in South Africa. It did so by considering the relationships between job demands, job resources, personal resources, employee burnout, and employee engagement. This study empirically tested the proposed relationships between the constructs through structural equation modelling, and provided additional theoretical and empirical evidence that job demands, job resources (positive organisational practices), and personal resources (psychological capital) influence the level of employee burnout and employee engagement of teachers in secondary schools in South Africa. Substantive research hypotheses were formulated to establish if the arguments in the literature review are valid. To test the substantive hypotheses, an ex post facto correlation research design was utilised. Volunteer sampling was used to acquire the sample (secondary school teachers in public secondary schools in South Africa). The variables in the proposed structural model were measured through an online survey (sent via email) that contained the following measurements: the UWES-17; the CBI; the PPQ; the PCQ-24; the TTB; the physical educational resources questionnaire; and the JDRS. Biographical information was also obtained through the online survey. Twelve hypotheses were tested through item analysis and PLS-SEM. Of the twelve hypotheses, five were found to be statistically significant, while six of the non-significant paths were related to the moderating effects, and one was related to a main effect. The statistically significant hypotheses were hypotheses 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6. Based on the support found for the hypotheses, possible interventions were proposed. These interventions focus on assisting human resource managers and industrial psychologists in decreasing the levels of employee burnout and increasing employee engagement in public secondary schools in South Africa. Limitations and recommendations for future research are also provided.