Evaluating the Psychometric Properties of a Measure of Ethnic Identity Among Black South African Youth

The authors examined the dimensionality and psychometric properties of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) among Black South African adolescents (ages = 13–14; 52% female) representing several ethnic groups (Ndebele, Pedi, Sotho, Swati, Tsonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa, Zulu) and evaluated the measure for differential item functioning primarily among four ethnic groups (Sotho, Tswana, Xhosa, and Zulu). Results indicated that a two-dimensional model best represented the data, reflecting ethnic search/clarity and ethnic affirmations. Subsequently, we evaluated the equivalence of the MEIM among the four South African ethnic groups and a sample of African American adolescents (M_age = 15.57 years; SD = 1.22; 51% female). Further analyses revealed that configural and metric models were excellent across the four South African ethnic groups and the African American group. However, scalar invariance (i.e., intercept) was not found; the item intercepts were different for the South African ethnic groups and African Americans. Findings are discussed with consideration for conducting research on ethnic identity among youth in South Africa.     

Knowledge and quality-management activities’ influences on technology communication and innovation with African foreign investment experience

We examined how psychic distance moderates the association of South Korean chief executive officers’ (CEOs’) knowledge and quality management with their predisposition to invest in African technology and innovation markets. Participants were current and prospective South Korean African business investment senior managers (n = 64; 20 females; mean years in management = 19.4) or not (n = 187; 97 females, mean years in management = 15.9). Hierarchical regression analysis was used to analyse the relationships. Only quality management was significantly related to technology commercialisation capabilities and innovation performance among managers with African investment experience. However, both quality and knowledge management were significantly related to the outcomes among managers without African investment experience. The effect of psychic distance might be explained by risk averseness, in that those without experience of African investment might be with more risk avoidant than those with such experience.     

Ethics and HRM Education

Human resource management (HRM) education has tended to focus on specific functions and tasks within organizations, such as compensation, staffing, and evaluation. This task orientation within HRM education fails to account for the bigger questions facing human resource management and employment relationships, questions which address the roles and responsibilities of the HR function and HR practitioners. An educational focus on HRM that does not explicitly address larger ethical questions fails to equip students to address stakeholder concerns about how employees are treated or the ethical dilemmas facing employers with regard to the employment relationship, and ironically makes the HRM function less strategic to the organization. In this paper, we identify some of the key ethical issues within the employment relationship, discuss how extant HRM education often fails to address these issues or help students to become aware of them, and offer a framework for integrating ethics into HRM education.     

Sense of meaning and study perseverance and completion: a brief report

The study examines sense of meaning influences on study perseverance and course completion among students within a faculty of management sciences at a South African university (n = 40). Participants were selected for high scores on the Purpose in life (PIL) scale (n = 20; 50%) and contrasting low scores on the same (n = 20; 50%) (age range = 27 to 30 years, females = 73%, majority ethnicity = 70% Sotho speaking). Data were analysed using independent-samples t-test group comparison procedure. The results suggest that a high sense of meaning can explain study perseverance and completion.     

Bridging the Gap: How Supervisors’ Perceptions of Guanxi HRM Practices Influence Subordinates’ Work Engagement

This study aims to provide new insights into the relationship between supervisors' perceptions of guanxi human resource management (HRM) practices and their subordinates' work engagement. We used a three time‐lagged sample from 45 work groups and 205 employees in a state‐owned organisation (Study 1) and cross‐sectional data from 101 work groups and 413 employees in 101 different organisations (Study 2) to test our hypotheses. The results revealed that supervisors' perceptions of guanxi HRM practices were positively related to subordinates' perceptions of guanxi HRM practices, which, in turn, negatively affected subordinates' work engagement. This indirect effect was stronger when group power distance was low or when individual power distance orientation was low.     

Conflict management styles and work-related well-being among higher education employees

The objective of the study was to assess the relationship between conflict management styles and work-related well-being of employees in a higher education institution in South Africa. Participants were academic personnel (n = 180) and support staff (n = 201), of which 59.9% were females and 29.9% were black African participants of a large South African university. They completed self-report measures of conflict management and work-related well-being. The data were analysed to predict work-related well-being from conflict management styles and to determine the differences between support staff and academic personnel regarding conflict management styles and work-related well-being. Findings indicated the conflict management style of compromise to predict lower levels of engagement and higher levels of disengagement. Support staff reported to utilise the compromising and dominating style more than did academic personnel. Diversity in conflict management styles may serve organisations better than a monolithic conflict management style.     

Relating career stage to attitudes towards HR practices and commitment: Evidence of interaction effects?

A dominant theme within the human resource management (HRM) literature concerns the identification of "best practices" that will enhance both organizational performance and employee commitment. Although research exploring the impact of these practices at the level of the individual is considerably limited, it is implied that they may be applied both across and within organizations, yielding favourable outcomes such as higher organizational performance and enhanced employee commitment. This is despite claims that commitment is multidimensional and that certain organizational and individual variables are related to different forms of commitment. It is possible that organizations seeking to promote commitment might need to tailor HR practices to suit employees' needs, thus challenging the best practice perspective at the employee level. This article extends on the literature by examining whether the relationship between attitudes towards HR practices and commitment is moderated by career stage. The empirical research is based on an employee attitude survey within three financial service organizations in Ireland (N?=?288). Using hierarchical regression analysis, the findings show that interaction effects are evident regarding attitudes towards HR practices and affective, continuance, and normative commitment. The implications of these findings for the management of commitment are discussed.     

Structure of the Experience of Work and Life Circumstances Questionnaire among South African employees in the financial services and health sectors

This study sought to validate the Experience of Work and Life Circumstances Questionnaire (WLQ) in South Africa. Respondents were 393 employees within the financial services (n = 238) and health sector (n = 155). Results from the exploratory factor analysis indicated the WLQ to be a unidimensional measure. The goodness-of-fit statistics following confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated a well-fitting measurement model for the WLQ. The WLQ appears to yield reliable and valid scores for use in South African work settings.     

Embedding social networks: How guanxi ties reinforce Chinese employees’ retention

Going beyond traditional inquiry into social support from local organizational constituents, this project examined how diverse resources from mutually affiliated contacts within and beyond local work environs boost propensity to stay in firms. We deployed Burt’s (1992) name generator and network closure index to more fully assess guanxi networks in China, which comprise strong, dense, and multiplex ties. Specifically, we tested how closed guanxi networks promote job loyalty among Chinese nationals, while investigating how high-commitment human resource management (HRM) systems moderate network effects. We collected egonet data from 417 employees in four high tech firms in China. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed that guanxi network closure increases propensity to stay, whose effects high-commitment HRM reinforce.     

The relationship between existential attitudes and professional quality of life among nursing students

This study examined the relationship between existential attitudes and professional quality of life among a sample of South African nursing students (N = 150; mean age = 21.19, SD = 2.77; female = 90%). The student nurses completed the Life Attitudes Profile-Revised (LAP-R) and the Professional Quality of Life Scale (PROQoL). The data were analysed using the Pearson product-moment correlation and multiple regression analysis. Existential attitudes significantly predicted scores on the PROQoL. The findings suggest that existential attitudes are an essential personal resource that could serve as a potential buffer against compassion fatigue and burnout while enhancing compassion satisfaction.     

职业胜任力在工作要求-资源模型中的调节和中介作用

采用JD-R模型探讨了职业胜任力在工作要求-资源模型中的作用。结果表明:(1)职业胜任力弱化了工作要求和情感衰竭之间的正向关系;(2)职业胜任力正向影响工作投入;(3)职业胜任力在工作资源与工作投入之间起中介作用。本研究启示可通过提升员工的职业胜任力,促进员工的工作投入并缓解职业倦怠。     

Career counselling intervention efficacy with South African university students

This exploratory study examined the efficacy of a brief career counselling intervention with South African university students (n?=?54; female?=?59%, male?=?40%; black?=?77%, Indian?=?27%, coloured?=?1%, white?=?3%; age range 17 to 19 years). The students completed a brief career development workshop and focus group discussion to address their career self-efficacy, career uncertainty, and anxiety post intervention. Findings suggest the students to have experienced a higher awareness of individual career assets and career self-management competencies from the counselling intervention.     

Personal growth initiative: Relation to Hedonia and Eudaimonia happiness among South African university students

This study examined the relationship between personal growth initiative (PGI) and hedonic and eudaimonic happiness among a sample of South African university students (N = 235; mean age = 20.38, SD = 1.55; female = 61.70%). Students completed measures on personal growth initiative, hedonic happiness, and eudaimonic happiness. Regression analysis indicated personal growth initiative to positively predict students’ reported scores on hedonic and eudaimonic measures. The findings underscore the importance of PGI among student populations in advancing well-being among university students. It is proposed that higher education student development and support services should tap into PGI as a resource for enhancing student self-directed change and happiness.     

Extending Corporate Social Responsibility Research to the Human Resource Management and Organizational Behavior Domains: A Look to the Future

Although issues of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have become an important topic of research, there have been few studies on this topic conducted in the fields of human resource (HR) management and organizational behavior (OB). To address this gap, we edited a special issue of Personnel Psychology that explicitly focuses attention on CSR in the HR/OB domains. In this introductory editorial, we synthesize and extend the four articles published in the special issue. We also address issues relating to the conceptualization and measurement of CSR, the application of microlevel theories to CSR, and the practical and methodological implications of research in this domain. Finally, we provide suggestions for future research linking CSR with some of the most frequently studied topics in HR/OB. We propose that a focus on HR/OB will improve our understanding of the antecedents and consequences of CSR and also benefit HR/OB in terms of bridging the science–practice and micro–macro gaps.     

Exploring the links between gender,dwelling, and career orientations of African emerging adults

The study explored the socio-ecological (i.e. gender and geographical location) influences on the career orientations of emerging adults. The participants comprised a convenience sample of 159 black African South African university students (57% rural, 43% urban; 63% females, 37% males; mean age = 19.0, SD = 2.24). The emerging adults completed a career orientations inventory and also self-reported their demographics. We applied hierarchical regression analysis to predict the emerging adults’ career orientations from their gender and place of dwelling (geographical location) controlling for age. Results indicate that gender predicts interest in entrepreneurial creativity orientations for males rather than for females, and interest in service-oriented occupations for females compared to males. Geographical location predicted interest in entrepreneurial, general management, and service type of occupations for those from the rural rather than urban areas. Urban location predicted interest in technical and functional careers anchors. Career orientations among South African emerging adults appeared to be gendered and tied to place of geographical origin, suggesting social context socialisation influences.     

People performance enablers in relation to employees’ psychological attachment to the organisation

This study investigated the relationship between a set of people performance enablers and psychological attachment behavioural states in a variety of South African work settings. The sample (N?=?582) comprised mostly males (69%) and black Africans from organisations in the manufacturing (17%), financial services (14%), information technology (16%) and the non-profit sectors (53%). Data on employees’ perceptions of performance enablers and their psychological attachment to the particular organisation were collected using the Psychological Work Immersion Scale (PWIS: Veldsman, 2013 Veldsman, D. (2013). Moving towards a strategic human capital return on investment model: An exploratory study of the Psychological Work Immersion Scale. Unpublished research report, Rocketfuel Consulting, Randburg, South Africa. [Google Scholar]). The data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis to reveal the structure of the people enablers and psychological attachment variables in the South African work settings. Structural equation modelling was used to predict psychological attachment from the performance enabler indicators. The findings provided evidence that employees’ perceptions of performance enablers significantly explain their level of psychological attachment (commitment, motivation and work absorption). Manager credibility appears as a key performance enabler and commitment as a strong element of psychological attachment. The research contributes to the literature on individual and organisational performance by extending research on work psychology in the South African context.     

Trait Entitlement and Perceived Favorability of Human Resource Management Practices in the Prediction of Job Satisfaction

Purpose  

Inconsistency in offerings of human resource management (HRM) practices across organizations is potentially problematic for employees with high levels of entitlement as they tend to believe they get less than they deserve. The purpose of this study was to examine the moderating effect of trait entitlement on the relationship between the favorability of HRM practices and job satisfaction.     

Hardiness as predictor of work readiness: a preliminary exploratory study

This study explored hardiness as a possible predictor of work readiness in cross-cultural settings. In order to explore which factors may elicit hardiness, the sub-scales were identified and explored. Participants were from two African countries, namely South Africa (n = 47; females = 57%) and Uganda (n = 45; females = 51%). They completed the Sense of Coherence (SOC), Psychological Capital (PSYCAP) and Dispositional Hardiness/Resilience Scale (DRS-15). The results showed a strong positive correlation between psychological capital and dispositional hardiness.     

Emotional intelligence and aggression among South African adolescents: Preliminary evidence

We investigated gender differences in emotional intelligence and aggression among South African adolescents. Four hundred and forty-four adolescents (female =51.4 %; mean age =15.5 years, SD= 1.42 years; rural residence = 35.5%, urban residence = 65.5%) completed an emotional intelligence scale and an aggression expression survey. Exploratory independent sample t-test analysis revealed female adolescents to score higher on perception of and management of emotions than male adolescents. Female adolescents also scored higher on verbal aggression than their male peers, whereas male adolescents scored higher on physical aggression than the female adolescents.