Masters Degrees (Industrial Psychology)

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

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    Crafting and self-undermining in the Job Demands-Resources Model for academic staff at a South African higher education institution
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04) Theron, Liza; Boonzaier, William; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Industrial Psychology.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: From the ubiquitous prevalence of burnout among academic staff in higher education institutions, it is evident that academia has become a demanding profession. Today’s higher education sector has endured an age of complex transition caused by constant global changes. Pressure from government, together with the burdensome expectation to contribute in terms of research and development, not only deposits demands on higher education institutions, but ultimately affects academic staff often confronted with a shortage of resources while being exposed to various work demands. It has been established that employee engagement and burnout are two psychological constructs that have a significant impact on institutional success, and despite superlative institutional efforts, there remains a variance in employee engagement and burnout. Research to date tends to focus solely on the work domain in explaining employee engagement and burnout. While extensive research has been conducted on these two psychological constructs, the existing accounts fail to recognise factors outside of the work environment that may also have a substantial impact on engagement and burnout. The Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Model (Demerouti et al., 2001) served as a guiding theoretical structure to explore the predominant ambition of this study, namely to construct and empirically evaluate a structural model, derived from theory, that explores work- and non-work-related factors that may potentially affect the inconsistencies in employee engagement and burnout among academic staff in the higher education sector of South Africa. Employing an ex post facto correlation design, the proposed hypotheses were tested. This study employed convenience sampling to collect quantitative data via an online questionnaire from 158 academic staff members who, during the course of the study, were employed at Stellenbosch University. On the whole, the findings demonstrated that, despite the direct impact of job crafting and self-undermining on employee engagement and burnout, these variables do not weaken or strengthen the influence of job demands and resources on employee engagement and burnout. Moreover, the potential moderating effect of leisure crafting on occupational well-being was found to be insignificant. Thus, the study was not able to prove the importance of non-work-related crafting in the holistic pursuit of ameliorating occupational functioning and well-being, and therefore also the importance of incorporating leisure crafting within the well-established JD-R framework. However, the results illuminated several limitations, including the research design used. Accordingly, the study suggested recommendations for future endeavours which included adopting a mixed-method or quasi-experimental research design, an alternative sampling method to maximise representativeness and sample size, and exploring the phenomena of interest by modifying the paths portrayed in the conceptual model, among other things. Still, by foregrounding crafting, particularly in the non-work domain, that may have an effect on employee engagement and burnout among academic staff in a higher education institution of South Africa, this study contributes to the theoretical framework of employee engagement and burnout. Ultimately, exploring employee engagement and burnout from a more holistic perspective should not only benefit higher education institutions, but also organisations in other sectors, providing them with valuable insights on where else they should focus their attention towards enhancing employees’ occupational well-being to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage through their human capital.
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    How the distressed personality, job demands and resources relate to customer service agents' engagement and burnout
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04) Stemmet, Rushka; Boonzaier, William; Fontaine, Yolandi; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Industrial Psychology.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: Using the Job-Demands Resources (JD-R) model as a theoretical framework, this study proposes a model that investigates the influence of the distressed personality type (Type D), job overload (i.e. a job demand), and perceived social support (i.e. a job resource) on the work engagement and burnout of customer service agents in the financial services sector. A cross-sectional research design was conducted, using a web-based questionnaire. The researcher collected data from N = 442 customer service agents working in the financial service industry in Gauteng, South Africa. An online questionnaire included a compilation of instruments, viz. the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale 9-item version; the Social Support Scale; the Maslach Burnout Inventory; the Type D Scale-14; and the Job Demands and Resources Scale, to assess work overload. The study evaluated the aforementioned relationships using partial least squares (PLS) analysis through structural equation modelling (SEM). The results of the study indicate that burnout has a direct and significant negative impact on work engagement; perceived social support has a direct positive relationship with work engagement; the Type D personality profile has a direct negative relationship with perceived social support; and work overload has a direct positive relationship with burnout. In addition, the results of PLS suggest that, when work overload is low, it functions as a mediator of perceived social support in engagement (but less so when work overload is high). Given the results of the current research, human resource professionals and customer service managers should take decisive steps to establish and maintain a socially supportive work environment and prioritise initiatives that foster job resources, even in an inherently demanding work environment. Furthermore, increasing job resources will enhance the experience of work engagement and buffer against the impact of job demands and burnout. The current study contributes to the existing knowledge base by including the Type D personality in the JD-R model and its effect on the perception of social support, and by testing work overload as a mediator between social support and engagement. This study concludes by providing practical interventions that focus on proactively enhancing work engagement and reducing burnout. Finally, ideas for future researchers to consider are proposed.