Browsing by Author "Basson, Leanne"

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    Job calling : testing the effects on engagement and health in the South African police service
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-12) Basson, Leanne; Boonzaier, Billy; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Science. Dept. of Industrial Psychology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Literature related to the South African Police Service (SAPS) consistently highlights the negative aspects of SAPS work environments and the resultant adverse impact on workers’ well-being. More specifically, research evidence regarding the police shows an increase in reported cases of illness, posttraumatic stress, medical boarding, burnout, substance abuse and suicide as well as a decrease in the level of job satisfaction and performance, compared to the norms of the general population (Swanepoel & Pienaar, 2004). Furthermore, it has also been articulated in national and international research that police work entails a substantial amount of risk and difficulty, and when compared with other occupations, police work has been described as particularly stressful. However, Bakker and Demerouti (2014) report that some employees, regardless of high job demands, do not develop occupational health issues but seem to cope better than others under highly demanding and stressful work conditions. To build on these findings, the present study took a detailed look at factors affecting the well-being of employees of the SAPS. More specifically, seeing that limited research has been conducted on calling as a construct and its effects as a personal resource on employee engagement and occupational health in the SAPS, the following research-initiating questions were asked: a.How has calling been defined and measured in the workplace? b.How does calling network with other variables to influence engagement andoccupational health in the workplace? c.What is the effect of calling on engagement and occupational health in theworkplace? The job demands-resources (JD-R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014) was used as a framework to investigate these research-initiating questions in the Western Cape and Northern Cape SAPS. The primary objective of this study was to develop and empirically test a calling structural model, derived from the theory, which would explain the antecedents of variance in work engagement and occupational health. The antecedents comprised job characteristics (as a job resource), calling (as employees’ personal resources) and job demands present in the SAPS environment. An ex post facto correlational design was used to test the formulated hypotheses. Quantitative data was collected from 339 SAPS employees by means of nonprobability convenience sampling. A self-administered hard-copy survey as well as an online version of the survey was distributed to police stations and offices in the Western Cape, while only the online version of the survey was distributed to the police stations and offices in the Northern Cape. This took place after formal permission had been received from the SAPS to conduct the research and ethical clearance had been received from Stellenbosch University, and given that the SAPS employees had agreed to participate in the research study. The measuring instruments consisted of 1) the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-17) (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2003); 2) the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) (Goldberg & Hillier, 1979); 3) the revised Job Diagnostic Survey (JDS) (Boonzaier, Ficker & Rust, 2001); 4) the 12-item calling scale (Dobrow & Tosti-Kharas, 2011); and 5) the Police Stress Inventory (PSI) (Swanepoel & Pienaar, 2004). The data was analysed using item analyses and structural equation modelling, whereby partial least squares path analysis was conducted to determine the significance of the hypothesised relationships. From the 11 hypotheses formulated in the study, seven were found to be significant. More specifically, hypotheses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 were all found to be statistically significant and therefore supported JD-R theory (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014), which postulates that job demands are generally the most important predictors of occupational health issues, whereas job resources and personal resources are generally the most important predictors of work engagement. Hypotheses 8, 9, 10 and 11 were found to be not significant; however, these hypotheses were related to the moderating effects. Furthermore, it was also found during the interpretation of the final scores that employees of the SAPS were highly engaged in their work, experienced high levels of occupational health, had access to jobs equipped with a variety of job characteristics, experienced high levels of calling and seemed to experience low levels of job demands. The findings of the study shed light on the importance of developing and maintaining interventions that can foster job and personal resources in the pursuit of optimising work engagement and occupational health. In addition, the importance of calling as a personal resource was emphasised for employees of the SAPS to cope more effectively with their existing job demands, which cumulatively then results in a decrease in the employees’ level of occupational health issues.