Scarce Skills Research Articles

Retention factors in relation to organisational commitment in medical and information technology services

Orientation: Retaining staff with scarce and critical skills in the medical and information technology (IT) industry has become a top priority because of skills shortages.Research purpose: The objectives of the study were to investigate empirically: (1) the relationship between employees’ satisfaction with organisational retention factors (measured by the Retention Factors Scale) and their organisational commitment (measured by the Organisational Commitment Questionnaire) and (2) whether gender, age, race and tenure groups differ significantly in terms of these variables.Motivation for the study: Medical and information technology professionals have specialised and hard to replace skills. They also have strong tendencies to leave their organisations and countries. Understanding the retention factors that will increase their organisational commitment may benefit the organisations who want to retain their valuable talent.Research design, approach and method: The researchers used a cross-sectional survey design to collect data from a purposive sample of 206 staff members who had scarce skills in a South African medical and information technology services company. Correlational and inferential statistics were computed to achieve the objectives.Main findings: The results showed that the participants’ satisfaction with retention factors has a significant relationship with their organisational commitment and that the biographical groups differ significantly in terms of the variables.Practical/managerial implications: The measured retention factors were all associated with human resource management practices that influence employees’ intentions to leave.Contribution/value-add: The results are important to managers who are interested in retaining staff who have scarce skills and provide valuable pointers for designing effective retention strategies.

Radiation biology – An important science for an advanced nuclear nation like South Africa

The sustainability of radiation biology (radiobiology) is under threat in South Africa because of underdevelopment in the discipline, despite the fact that South Africa has been a user of radiation since radioactivity and X-rays were discovered. The widespread use of radiation in medicine, nuclear reactors, particle accelerators and other sophisticated nuclear facilities in South Africa makes it imperative that the interaction of radiation with biological systems is understood. For example, radiobiology is critical in radiation oncology and cancer treatment. Radiobiology is a distinctly biological science and its uniqueness and value should be highlighted to provide insight for authorities and other relevant parties. Regrettably, radiobiology has been largely neglected despite the importance of maintaining expertise and competence in this discipline. Many radiation-associated disciplines require radiobiology for their training and practice yet few radiobiologists are available nationally. The scientific community needs to be informed of the predicament of radiobiology in South Africa so that the situation can be addressed. Radiobiology is a scarce skill that needs to be developed to support South Africa’s mature radiation infrastructure. The country has too few radiobiologist training programmes and there is a lack of succession planning. Radiobiology is required for training and practice in a number of disciplines that use radiation, but, as a result of a shortage of qualified personnel, teaching of radiobiology has frequently been conducted by non-experts. To reinvigorate radiobiology in South Africa, a collective effort by government, academia, industry and allied professionals is required.

Policy and programmatic implications of task shifting in Uganda: a case study

BackgroundUganda has a severe health worker shortage and a high demand for health care services. This study aimed to assess the policy and programmatic implications of task shifting in Uganda.MethodsThis was a qualitative, descriptive study through 34 key informant interviews and eight (8) focus group discussions, with participants from various levels of the health system.ResultsPolicy makers understood task shifting, but front-line health workers had misconceptions on the meaning and intention(s) of task shifting. Examples were cited of task shifting within the Ugandan health system, some formalized (e.g. psychiatric clinical officers), and some informal ones (e.g. nurses inserting IV lines and initiating treatment). There was apparently high acceptance of task shifting in HIV/AIDS service delivery, with involvement of community health workers (CHW) and PLWHA in care and support of AIDS patients.There was no written policy or guidelines on task shifting, but the policy environment was reportedly conducive with plans to develop a policy and guidelines on task shifting.Factors favouring task shifting included successful examples of task shifting, proper referral channels, the need for services, scarcity of skills and focused initiatives such as home based management of fever. Barriers to task shifting included reluctance to change, protection of professional turf, professional boundaries and regulations, heavy workload and high disease burden, poor planning, lack of a task shifting champion, lack of guidelines, the name task shifting itself, and unemployed health professionals.There were both positive and negative views on task shifting: the positive ones cast task shifting as one of the solutions to the dual problem of lack of skills and high demand for service, and as something that is already happening; while negative ones saw it as a quick fix intended for the poor, a threat to quality care and likely to compromise the health system.ConclusionThere were widespread examples of task in Uganda, and task shifting was mainly attributed to HRH shortages coupled with the high demand for healthcare services. There is need for clear policy and guidelines to regulate task shifting and protect those who undertake delegated tasks.

Student diversity in South African higher education

South Africa suffers from a scarcity of skills in key areas of the economy, and the higher education sector has a crucial role to play in enabling graduates to access the labour market, thus creating opportunities for households to break the poverty cycle. We argue that South Africa's survival depends on expanding access to higher education and improving both diversity and student-throughput rates. In order to overcome the legacy of legalised exclusion of the majority population from educational and economic opportunities, the country has no choice but to address issues related to the inclusion of diversity in higher education. In this paper, we outline the historical background to South Africa's higher education system during apartheid and highlight measures taken to transform the sector. Changes in the student population between 1993 and 2008 are examined, and factors hindering student diversity are discussed. Finally, two strategies aimed at contributing to access and diversity in higher education are shared. Key terms: South Africa; diversity; inclusion; poverty; skills.

Success factors of entrepreneurial activity in the Overberg region of Western Cape, South Africa

Entrepreneurial activities around the world accounted for about 70% of the global GDP on average. However, in South Africa entrepreneurial activities only share 40% of the country’s GDP. With an unemployment rate of approximately 25%, accelerating entrepreneurial activity becomes crucial in a developing country like South Africa. A recent study executed in the Overberg rural district has shown vast opportunity for new endeavors in this direction. Entrepreneurial activity is mostly centered on large-scale agricultural practices. This district is the largest apple producer in the country and the second largest pear producer. However, unemployment in this region has increased in recent years due to the nature of fruit farming which is seasonal. Off-season farmers employ only up to 9% of the district farm workers which leaves 11.1% workers without employment for the rest of the year. Though this area is affluent with natural resources; scarcity of skills, poor infrastructure and lack of technology result in slow economic growth. Further, the absenteeism of entrepreneurial success factors makes it impossible for the many survivalist businesses in the informal sector to be sustainable and to show any form of growth. This paper will analyze the success factors or lack thereof and make recommendations towards opportunities that will help to advance the Overberg region’s entrepreneurial activity. Key words: Entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, indigenous entrepreneurial activity.

Comparative and International Education: A Bibliography (2009)

Comparative and International Education: A Bibliography (2009)

Thiess Kentz builds workforce skills

PurposeEvaluates the advanced‐entry adult‐apprenticeship scheme that Thiess Kentz construction company in Australia introduced in partnership with group‐training organization East Coast Apprenticeships and public training provider Skills Tech Australia.Design/methodology/approachFocuses on the recruitment and selection of apprentices; the profile for selection; the recognition of prior learning; the independent test program; initial deployment to site; and what happens on completion of the program.FindingsSuggests that trained adult apprentices with previous experience can be more productive and loyal.Practical implicationsReveals that the apprenticeship scheme creates and maintains a guaranteed element in the company's skilled workforce, identifies and positions a new generation of supervisors and encourages loyalty to the company among people who have benefited from the program.Social implicationsArgues that the scheme has widespread application across all trades and is being recognized as a new pathway to qualification and potentially a major solution to skill shortages across the world. Emphasizes that, in order to address skills shortages for international construction, training methods must be improved. Highlights a possible way forward.Originality/valueIllustrates how a training partnership has sought to provide necessary and increasingly scarce skills for an international construction organization through an original apprenticeship scheme.

Funding crisis jeopardises Ph.D.s

Funding crisis jeopardises Ph.D.s

Permit to work: the Integrated Safe System of Work

A permit to work (PTW) system is a formal system used to control certain types of work that are identified as potentially hazardous. It is also a means of communication between facility management, plant supervisors and operators, and those who carry out the hazardous work. The essential features of a PTW system are: • Clear identification for who may authorise particular jobs, and who is responsible for specifying the necessary precautions; • Training and instruction in the issue and use of permits; and, • Monitoring and auditing to ensure that the system works as intended. PTW systems are the key to ensuring safe execution of activities at site, yet there are many approaches to how permit systems can, and should, work. Each approach has its own merits and weaknesses. Woodside recognised that, as part of its ongoing program to improve the safety of its workers, there existed significant scope for a new and better work management system. After many years of incremental evolution of the PTW and the fragmentation of the parent system as each facility developed its own variation, it was evident that a completely new system embracing modern technology would provide the best result, while simultaneously standardising Woodside with one common and centralised system. The divergence of the systems over time caused increasing difficulty in managing changes to the PTW system across all sites and in benchmarking to determine best practice. A centralised system would remove accountability from facilities for the development of the business rules, and instead ensure they focussed on compliance with the rules. The new system would adopt key learnings from the industry’s history and address root causes of past incidents. It would also enable the ability to adopt future learnings and become a conduit for rapid integration into the working practices on all sites. The Integrated Safe System of Work (iSSoW) developed by Woodside adopts best practices from permit systems worldwide and combines them with new innovative management features. The system is administered through a simple-to-use computer interface, with incorporation of many of the business rules into the software package. The iSSoW is now in place on all Woodside facilities (platforms, not-normally manned installations, FPSO’s and onshore plants). With nearly 4,000 users, the implementation has required careful coordination, and been supported by a comprehensive training programme. The system has been demonstrated to be both effective and efficient. Effectiveness—the improvement of safety performance—was the primary objective. The system has raised work party hazards awareness, and has resulted in significant improvements in working practices company-wide. Efficiency was a secondary goal, and is made possible through streamlining in the user-interface. The introduction of the new system complements Woodside’s work to develop an improved safety culture, and brings consistency across all sites and all shifts—essential features as our industry struggles to deal with the growing scarcity of skills and experience. The system is now being reviewed by organisations across many industry and service sectors in Australia, and has been implemented in the power industry. This paper discusses the attributes of the system, the many challenges associated with development and large-scale implementation of such a core system, and the additional opportunities the system presents. Using a case study of implementation of iSSoW onto the Woodside operational facilities, it highlights the critical success factors of introducing iSSoW on a company-wide basis.

Learnerships and skills development in South Africa: a shift to prioritise the young unemployed

Much is expected from the new learnership system implemented in South Africa a mere seven years ago as a key component in putting a multi‐pronged National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) into operation. The learnership system is expected to foster skills development in the formal economy, as well as assist new (young) entrants into employment. There is debate as to whether the priority for the system should be to function as a demand‐led formal labour market tool to fill the need for critical and scarce skills, or as an employment‐creation mechanism, and whether it is possible to do both effectively. The research analyses a newly created population database that covers enrolments since the inception of the learnership system. In practice, the learnership system is increasingly prioritising an employment‐creation function, focused on providing skills development for young Africans registered at Level 4 or below. Recognising this shifting profile is an important step for enhancing the effectiveness of the system, whether in terms of funding, focus of programmes, workplace placements or support offered.

A model for community mental health services in South Africa

To provide a model to estimate human resource needs for community-based mental health services in South Africa. A situation analysis was conducted of current community-based mental health service provision in South Africa, which comprise outpatient and emergency services, residential care and day care. Service utilisation rates and staffing needs were estimated for two levels of service coverage, using data from the situation analysis, local epidemiological studies and consultation with key stakeholders. For a population of 100,000 people, 7.3-23.8 full-time equivalent staff would be required to provide services in outpatient services, 14.9-41.6 in day care and 11.5-23.0 in residential care at minimum and full coverage levels respectively. The model can facilitate rational planning by requiring transparency and accountability in the assumptions used. This method can be adapted to a range of countries, by entering relevant country data. The model fills a gap, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, where community-based mental health services are sparse, and decisions regarding allocations to them are hampered by a lack of good quality data. The results of the model are limited by the quality of data and the assumptions upon which the modelling are based.

Advanced entry adult apprenticeship training scheme: a case study

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to evaluate an innovative way to train adult apprentices for the construction industry.Design/methodology/approachThe paper emphasizes that, in order to address skills shortages for international construction, training methods must be improved. It looks at the example of an adult apprenticeship scheme in Australia from the perspectives of the apprentice, the training provider and the employer.FindingsThe paper suggests that trained adult apprentices with previous experience can be more productive and loyal, and that this scheme has implications for the training of apprentices generally.Research limitations/implicationsTo date, the scheme has enjoyed success in Australia and for the provision of tradespeople in the international construction industry.Originality/valueThe paper illustrates how a training partnership has sought to provide necessary and increasingly scarce skills for an international construction organization through an original apprenticeship scheme.

L'imitation et la contrefaçon peuvent-elles être bénéfiques aux firmes originales ?

La contrefaçon et la copie des produits de mode et de luxe sont généralement considérées comme des activités répréhensibles et susceptibles de léser les firmes détentrices des droits de propriété intellectuelle sur lesdits produits. Notre contribution effectue une revue des différents arguments, par lesquels la contrefaçon et la copie pourraient profiter aux firmes originales. Outre l’exposé synthétique de ces arguments et leur caractère séduisant sur le plan théorique, nous nous intéressons également à leur capacité à rendre compte du monde réel. Nous montrons qu’au-delà d’anecdotes parfois pertinentes, le ratio « contributions empiriques » sur « contributions théoriques » demeure très faible, d’où une capacité réduite à servir de guide pour des recommandations pertinentes.

Innovation offshoring and outsourcing: what are the implications for industrial policy?

This paper examines how innovation offshoring through global innovation networks affects Industrial Upgrading (IU) policies in Asia's electronics industry. I argue that developing countries cannot build their innovative capabilities by solely relying on their national innovation systems. For quite some time, these countries will have to draw primarily on foreign sources of knowledge as a catalyst for learning and capability formation. The paper discusses generic policy issues that host countries need to address to maximise the benefits of innovation offshoring. To leverage the potential benefits from global network integration, host countries must have in place vigorous policies to reduce the potentially high costs that may result from 'brain drain' (both domestic and international) when Trans-National Corporations (TNCs) are crowding out the local market for scarce skills, from the acquisition by TNCs of innovative local companies and from a potential deterrence effect of TNC labs on local R&D. I emphasi...

Contagious Capitalism: Globalization and the Politics of Labor in China (review)

Reviewed by: Contagious Capitalism: Globalization and the Politics of Labor in China Robert E. Gamer (bio) Mary Elizabeth Gallagher. Contagious Capitalism: Globalization and the Politics of Labor in China. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2005. xiii, 240 pp. Hardcover $35.00, ISBN 0–691–11761–6. This book is required reading for those who believe capitalism will bring democracy and a market economy to China. It presents compelling evidence that capitalism actually stabilizes China’s authoritarian rule and command economy. That stability, however, may be fragile. Professor Gallagher finds that multinational corporations were invited to China to help stabilize its political and economic systems. Furthermore, the approach is working. It is causing state industries to operate more efficiently under new management schemes, it is facilitating an end to the “iron rice bowl,” and it has moderated pressures for labor reforms and political liberalization. Competition from multinationals has helped promote a political climate that gives large portions of China’s urban population and significant portions of its rural populace incentives to support industry that is competitive in the world market. This allows radical increases in the pay of top management (giving them reason to support the system) at the same time that workers are losing their welfare benefits, yet gaining the option to receive wage increases with improved performance. The process has created losers: whole regions and groups of workers are left behind. But a growing consensus among the minority who have benefited, including the country’s wealthiest individuals, slows reforms that might help those groups and liberalize politics. As with most late developers, states throughout Asia have played a strong role in promoting development. China has given multinationals an unusual amount of freedom in that pursuit. It has benefited from large infusions of foreign direct investment. The presence of the multinationals gives Chinese firms an incentive to compete and carry out joint ventures with them. Foreign investors provide Chinese firms with capital, intellectual property secrets, and management expertise, which help them compete. Meanwhile, domestic firms are losing skilled workers to foreign firms that pay more. This increases the drive for efficiency and productivity, while focusing worker attention on the right to choose a job rather than the right to work. Workers can now own their own homes, aided by loans and new forms of unemployment insurance and portable medical and pension benefit programs. Thus labor, once afforded job protection and numerous benefits under socialism, is fragmented, and the reforms are not creating a powerful domestic private business class. The foremost domestic business leaders are heavily allied with government, state industries, and foreign capitalists. Foreign capitalists lead China’s integration with the global economy. [End Page 103] Hybrid firms have evolved that combine public and private ownership, using capital from state banks and foreign stock sales. These firms have more managerial autonomy than the old state industries. Foreigners control some of that decision making. Short-term (often three-month) labor contracts, sharply reduced welfare benefits, and wages based on productivity are three results of this autonomy. Older and more skilled workers were attracted to the new system because of the chance for increased wages (which rise as industries compete for scarce skills), opportunity for advancement, and the chance for special opportunities such as studying abroad. Local officials share in the spoils. Top managers are often party secretaries as well. Such individuals no longer clamor for privatization of industry. They become supporters of their own national—actually hybrid—firms. They do not want a return to the domination by foreign capital that occurred after the Opium Wars; this makes them cautious about economic liberalization. That stands in marked contrast to Russia’s privatization of industry, which created a class of private businessmen operating entirely independent of government, free to fire their workers and strip companies of assets instead of making them more competitive by improving productivity and creating a loyal workforce. Bureaucrats, state managers, and state enterprise workers who are now recalcitrant opponents of state economic control in Russia have become its supporters in China. In Hungary small private entrepreneurs were encouraged, creating a burgeoning private sector; in China, those smaller entrepreneurs are largely in town and village enterprises and urban collectives, which...

INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: SKILL TRANSFERENCE THROUGH A REVERSAL OF ‘HUMAN CAPITAL FLIGHT’ OR TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

Abstract. We examine the issue of technical assistance versus brain drain repatriation as alternative strategies for transferring scarce skills to a skill‐poor economy. Technical assistance relies mainly on expatriate skills and labour from the host country, while brain drain repatriation seeks to effect a return of skills that might have been lost in migration. We show that, even in the simplest setting with imperfect information, a surprisingly rich menu of responses is obtained.

Transnational Teacher Migration from South Africa: A New Form of Indentured Labourers?

Globalisation of the world markets has paved the way for the movement of people with scarce skills across national boundaries with relative ease. Professionals have been extremely susceptible, given their particular knowledge and skills base. The trend is for professionals from developing countries to fill the gaps in the labour market in developed countries. As a developing country, South Africa (SA) is losing valuable assets, namely professionals (teachers, doctors, and nurses) to developed countries. Presently there exists a corpus of literature on migration but debates on international South-North labour migration have been one sided, focusing on the consequences for receiving societies (de Haas, 2005:1269). The result of this emphasis is the neglect of an understanding of the causes and consequences of migration in sending countries. Furthermore, there is a distinct dearth of literature on teacher migration in the context of SA despite claims from British education authorities that they are aggressively recruiting SA teachers (Special Assignment, SABC3, 23-04-04, 21h30). This paper highlights transnational migration determinants for South African teachers by presenting the demographic profiles of exiling teachers and their motivations for leaving SA. There appears to be some similarities in this migration to the arrival of indentured Indian Labourers in 1860 in Natal although the latter was a north-south migration. The need to understand migrant teachers’ decision-making is salient as a step in creating avenues for discourse on the production of teachers for export. It will also be of relevance in attracting ex-patriots back to their home country.

Sustainable development in an industrial enterprise: the case of Ontario Hydro

PurposeThis paper seeks to present a longitudinal case study of Ontario Hydro – an industrial organization that used sustainable development as the basis for a strategy of social and organizational transformation.Design/methodology/approachThe paper describes the complex factors that influenced the formulation and implementation of this strategy.FindingsThe findings indicate the advanced ambition and authenticity of Ontario Hydro's strategy, even though it was formulated some ten years ago. The study suggests that the strategy was abandoned for reasons that include the gap between the processes identified in the strategy and the processes followed in practice, the absence of platforms to discuss and agree the meaning and practice of sustainable development within the company and its wider system, and the scarcity of skills to facilitate sustainable development as a process of multi‐actor innovation. Consequently, the concept of sustainable development was not translated into practices that had shared meaning for the many actors involved in the energy system of Ontario. While based on a case study of one organization, the findings appear to speak to more general issues of sustainable development as the management of organizational and contextual change.Practical implicationsThe paper indicates much about the process of organizational change to effect more sustainable practices within a company and its social context.Originality/valueNo other organization has pursued a strategy for sustainable development with the same claim to authenticity as that of Ontario Hydro, where the strategy was cross‐referenced to Agenda 21 and developed with input from some of the main architects of Agenda 21. Moreover, few studies of sustainable development in the literature span a period as long as this case.

What interventions do South African qualified doctors think will retain them in rural hospitals of the Limpopo province of South Africa?

In South Africa, the health system faces a variety of problems, such as an overall shortage of and misdistribution of healthcare workers. The Department of Health in South Africa has attempted to address the shortage of rural doctors by introducing various interventions, including an increase in salaries, introduction of scarce skills and rural allowances, the deployment of foreign doctors, and upgrading of clinics and hospitals. Despite these, the maldistribution of doctors working in South Africa has not improved significantly. This attests to the multifactorial nature of this problem and to the fact that intensive and sustained efforts are needed to rectify it. Few South African studies have been undertaken to establish the needs of rural doctors in South Africa and to seek possible solutions to their problems. While a number of studies have identified some of the major problems, much still needs to be done. Innovative ways to address this crisis are urgently needed. The main objectives of this study were to identify interventions as proposed by doctors in the rural Limpopo province of South Africa and to develop recommendations based on these. This study utilised a descriptive qualitative design using a semi-structured questionnaire. Ten doctors from rural hospitals within all six districts of the Limpopo province were randomly selected and interviewed. Themes recommended included: increasing salaries and rural allowances; improving rural hospital accommodation; ensuring career progression; providing continuing medical education; increasing support by specialist consultants; improving the physical hospital infrastructure and rural referral systems; ensuring the availability of essential medical equipment and medicines; strengthening rural hospital management and increasing the role of doctors in management; improving the working conditions; establishing private-public collaborations with private general practitioners; increasing rural doctors' leave allocations; ensuring adequate senior support for junior doctors; improving rural hospital environments and providing recreational facilities; assisting rural doctors' families, and providing recognition and appreciation for the work rural doctors do. The resolution of one isolated factor without improving the host of push factors currently present in the health system is unlikely to lead to significant improvements in the retention of rural doctors. The results of this study can be used to assist the Limpopo Department of Health to identify the most pressing needs of rural doctors in the province. A number of interventions are suggested by rural doctors that they feel would retain them in their current rural practices. The recommendations include various interventions involving different levels of the healthcare system. It also recommends an incentive package for doctors willing to serve longer term in rural hospitals.

Reforming the Labour Market for Australian Teachers

Although there is a general consensus that teachers are important for student learning, there is little discussion of the process by which teachers are employed by schools: the teacher labour market. We argue, based on a mix of a priori and inductive reasoning, that inflexible attitudes about comparative wages have contributed toward chronic shortages of qualified teachers in specialised teacher labour markets and poor incentives for excellent teachers to remain teaching. Overseas studies indicate that chronic shortages occur because fewer science and mathematics graduates, compared to humanities and social science graduates, are attracted to teaching. Higher wage rates for teachers with scarce skills will alleviate shortages and reduce attrition of the most able teachers.