South African Service Industry Research Articles

Psychological career resources as explanatory mechanisms of employee adaptive career concerns across the career-life period

This study explored employee psychological resources as explanatory mechanisms of their adaptive career concerns. Participants were 315 predominantly black (39%) and female (70%) working adults (mean age = 37 years; SD = 9.77 years) employed in the South African services industry. Participants completed the Psychological Career Resources Inventory and the Psychosocial Career Preoccupations Scale. Multiple regression analysis showed the psychological career resources of career preferences and career values to significantly explain higher levels of preoccupations with person-environment fit and adaptation. Career values also seemed to explain higher levels of career establishment and work/life adjustment concerns. The career drivers and career harmonisers represented career self-management capacities that seemed to significantly explain lower levels of career adaptation and work/life adjustment concerns because of the intrinsic motivation to self-renew. The findings suggest the need for workplace career development practices to help employees capitalise on their psychological career resources when engaging in career adaptive behaviours across the career-life period.

Authentic leadership, organisational citizenship behaviours, and intention to quit: the indirect effect of psychological ownership

The aim of this study was to explore the influence of perceived authentic leadership on followers’ citizenship behaviour and their intention to quit their jobs, and to examine the indirect effect of psychological ownership in the relevant relationships. The study used a cross-sectional survey design to gather data from a sample of South African service industry employees ( N = 384). It employed structural equation modelling to test the hypotheses formulated. The study found that psychological ownership indirectly affected the relationship between authentic leadership and employees’ organisational citizenship behaviour and intention to quit. This study enables organisations to gain a better understanding of how a contextual resource such as authentic leadership behaviours can influence followers’ organisational citizenship and intention to quit through increasing feelings of ownership of the organisation.

Subjective work experiences, career orientations, and psychological career resources of working adults

The primary objective of the present study was to assess whether career orientations and psychological career resources relate to individuals’ subjective work experiences. A quantitative survey was conducted on a random sample of 2 997 participants at predominantly managerial and supervisory level in the South African service industry. The measuring instruments consisted of a subjective work experiences scale, the Career Orientations Inventory and Psychological Career Resources Inventory. The results indicated career orientations and psychological career resources as significant predictors of the participants’ subjective work experiences. The results make an important contribution to existing literature on career well-being and subjective career success. Career guidance and counseling, and organisational career development support have become of crucial importance in the changing employment climate in order to maximise individuals’ chances of experiencing job and career satisfaction and success over the life course (Sinclair 2009). More recently, interest in the subjective aspects of career success and satisfaction has gained greater salience in contemporary career research. This can be ascribed to the more turbulent career context resulting in careers being less ordered and predictable (Arnold and Cohen 2008; Arthur, Khapova and Wilderom 2005; Coetzee and Bergh 2009; Hall and Chandler 2005 Kidd 2008; Sinclair 2009). Contemporary measures of people’s subjective experiences of their careers and working lives tend to focus on the career self-concept or identity, the internal career orientation and the core self-evaluations relating to people’s psychological career resources or career meta-competencies (Coetzee 2008, Coetzee and Schreuder 2009b; Fugate, Kinicki and Ashforth 2004; Kanye and Crous 2007; Kuijpers and Scheerens 2006; Sinclair 2009; Van Dam 2004; Van der Heijde and Van der Heijden 2006). People’s experiences of subjective career success have also been linked to people’s subjective experiences of their careers and working lives which also relate

Exploring the socio-demographic differences on psychological career meta-capacities and retention-related dispositions

The aim of this study was to better understand socio-demographic differences of individuals in terms of their psychological career meta-capacities (measured by the Psychological Career Resources Inventory) and their retention related dispositions construct variables ((measured by the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and Organisation-Related Commitment Scale). A quantitative survey was conducted involving a non-probability purposive sample of predominantly black females employed at managerial and staff levels (N = 318) in the field of industrial and organisational psychology. An independent-samples t-test indicated significant differences between the various socio-demographic groups in regard to the measured variables. The findings contribute new knowledge that may be used to inform human resource career development practices concerned with the retention of particularly female employees in South African service industry.

Employees’ work engagement and job commitment: The moderating role of career anchors

Orientation: Organisations continue to focus on human resource initiatives for enhancingemployee commitment, satisfaction and engagement in order to gain a competitive edge in adynamic and fast-changing marketplace.Research purpose: The objective of the present study was to assess whether individuals’career anchors (measured by the career orientations inventory) significantly moderate therelationship between their work engagement (measured by the Utrecht work engagementscale) and job commitment (measured by the organisation-related commitment scale).Motivation for the study: Although the literature review suggests that people’s workengagement and job commitment may be influenced by their career anchors, there seems to bea paucity of research examining the interaction effects between these three variables.Research approach, design and method: A cross-sectional quantitative survey approach wasused. A non-probability purposive sample of adults (N = 318) employed in a human resourcecapacity in the South African service industry participated in the study. Stepwise hierarchicalmoderated regression analysis was performed to achieve the objective of the study.Main findings: The results showed that the work engagement-job commitment relationshipwas generally stronger for high career anchor preferences than for low career anchorpreferences.Practical/managerial implications: The results of the study can be useful when human resourceinterventions for enhancing employees’ engagement and commitment are developed.Contribution: The results of the study add new insights to the career literature by showing thatpeople’s career self-concepts (as reflected by their career anchors) are important to consider inenhancing their work engagement and job commitment.

Psychological career meta-competencies in relation to job embeddedness among human resource employees

In this study the psychological career resources, adaptability and hardiness (as a composite set of psychosocial career meta-competencies) of a convenience sample of 355 early-career human resource professionals were investigated in relation to their job embeddedness by means of a quantitative survey design. The sample consisted predominantly of black (92%) and female (71%) participants employed at managerial and staff levels in the South African service industry. A canonical correlation analysis indicated that self/other skills, career directedness, and the career adaptability competencies of concern, control and confidence significantly contributed to the participants’ sense of job-embedded fit. The findings may be used to inform career development support interventions aimed at assisting in the retention of valuable and talented staff. Key words: Retention, psychological career resources, career adaptability, hardiness, job embeddedness, psychosocial career meta-competencies.

Distance Learning Students’ Graduateness as Predictors of Their Job Satisfaction and Optimism about Future Career Prospects

This study explored whether individuals' graduateness skills and attributes (measured by the Graduateness Scale) significantly predict their job satisfaction and optimism about their future career prospects, and whether race and gender groups differ significantly regarding these variables. A random sample of 272 adults employed in the South African service industry and registered as distance learning students in the economic and management sciences field at a South African open distance learning higher education institution participated in the study. A quantitative survey design was used. Multiple regression analyses indicated enterprising skills as a significant predictor of the participants' job satisfaction. Continuous learning orientation and presenting and applying information skills significantly predicted the participants' optimism regarding their future career prospects. The race and gender groups differed significantly regarding their graduateness skills and attributes, with Indians scoring higher than the other race groups, and females scoring higher than their male counterparts. The new knowledge obtained may be used to inform organisational training and development and higher educational curriculum design practices concerned with optimising the graduateness of employees in their role as students and lifelong learners in a knowledge-driven global business economy.

“It's an empowerment thing”: An ethnography of colour bar conservation in a South African service industry

This ethnography of a large corporate casmo located in the province of Gauteng describes how apartheid era labour practices are reproduced in the postapartheid workplace. Colour bar conservation results not from weak governmental regulation of the firm's labour praaices. but from the precise manner in which worker empowerment is defined by the state and displayed by the firm. During apartheid. South African leisure firms operated casinos in the black homeland states. Free from regulatory oversight, they imported white workers from Europe to perform skilled work, in the process constructing a casino colour bar. With the transition to democratic rule these same firms were granted licenses to run casinos in the cities of the new South Africa, but only on condition that they operate their casinos so as to empower local blacks as workers and managers. Three questions are addressed herein. First, how was empowerment used as a rhetorical tool to justify the legalization of a mass-gambling industry? Second, how do workers and floor managers experience labour inside the new casino industry? Third, how are casino managers able to reproduce a colour bar, even under the watchful eye of provincial and national regulators?