Exploring leadership factors creating employee engagement or disengagement across job grade categories at a public higher education institution in South Africa
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Author(s)Anrusha BhanaLink to ORCID Index: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5577-6728
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Sachin SuknunanLink to ORCID Index: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7296-8059
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DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.19(1).2021.27
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Article InfoVolume 19 2021, Issue #1, pp. 317-327
- 1145 Views
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399 Downloads
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Ongoing difficulties in promoting employee commitment confront the domain of higher education, hence, the importance of staff to help achieve institutional goals grows. For this to happen, employee engagement is key. This paper examined the issues of engagement or disengagement amongst employees, including job grades and the factors influencing this, at Durban University of Technology, South Africa. It adopted a quantitative and qualitative method of inquiry. The quantitative data collection targeted 420 employees utilizing questionnaires and obtained a response rate of 312 (74%). The qualitative aspect involved interviewing 12 out of 18 leadership personnel, giving a response rate of 67%. Also, descriptive and inferential analysis was used. Internal employee engagement demonstrated a significant difference across job level categories, F (4, 307) = 4.012, p = 0.003. There is also a significant difference in agreement mean score, which is lower for lecturer grade level (M = 2.5257, SD = 1.08359) than middle manager grade level (M = 3.2909, SD = 0.82396), showing that lecturer grade level is more engaged as compared to the middle manager level reflecting that the this level is not as engaged as it should be. Obtained qualitative results showed that there was minimal employee engagement. Overall, there was more employee disengagement than engagement at the institution, leading to employee stress, increased employee turnover, and minimal employee productivity. This can, in turn, affect institutional productivity. However, leadership viewed employee engagement as important and something to be further developed.
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JEL Classification (Paper profile tab)I23, M14, J24, J28
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References46
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Tables3
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Figures0
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- Table 1. Employee engagement items
- Table 2. Pattern matrix for employee engagement constructs
- Table 3. ANOVA results for two measures across job grade category
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Human resource management in promoting innovation and organizational performance
I Gede Riana ,
Gede Suparna ,
I Gusti Made Suwandana ,
Sebastian Kot ,
Ismi Rajiani
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.18(1).2020.10
Problems and Perspectives in Management Volume 18, 2020 Issue #1 pp. 107-118 Views: 2959 Downloads: 665 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯHuman resource management (HRM) is one of the elements enabling an organization to remain competitive in turbulence conditions. The effective practice of HRM makes competent and innovative employees contributing to the achievement of organizational objectives. This study aims to analyze HRM practices in creating innovation and organizational performance. The questionnaire was used to measure the respondents’ perceptions of variables used by a Likert scale. A survey of 126 manager samples and middle managers at export-oriented short and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Bali, Indonesia, was conducted to test the model. The analysis has shown that the proposed model was proven to be compliant with the research hypotheses. HRM significantly affects organizational performance and innovation, and it was found out that innovation can improve organizational performance. However, in the process of simultaneous testing, it was found out that innovation cannot improve organizational performance. The lack of attention to investments in human resources became one of the barriers to SMEs in creating innovation.
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Business dynamism in the world economy
Zuzana Virglerova ,
Felice Addeo ,
Eliska Zapletalikova
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.18(3).2020.14
Problems and Perspectives in Management Volume 18, 2020 Issue #3 pp. 160-169 Views: 2358 Downloads: 274 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯThe creation and growth of new enterprises and, on the other hand, their decline and market exit are crucial factors of business dynamism and economic growth. Thus, business dynamism is an important aspect in the market chain and productivity of an economy, as well as a trigger for market reforms. The aim is to analyze business dynamism using Global Competitiveness Index 4.0 and its variables worldwide and to verify the relationship between business dynamism in the EU states and economic characteristics such as Valued added at factor cost, Enterprise Birth Rate and Enterprise Death Rate. Data were collected from the 2019 Global Competitiveness Report and from the EUROSTAT database, using the most recently updated source for each indicator. The 11th pillar of the Global Competitiveness Index, focused on business dynamics, and a set of indicators were analyzed using PCA to verify if all the variables are effective representatives of the concept. It was found out that the pillar does not effectively represent the concept of business dynamism in case of the EU countries; therefore the new pillar was constructed. A strong and statistically significant correlation between business dynamism and Value Added was confirmed. A relationship between business dynamism and other economic indicators was not proven. From a territorial point of view, Oceania achieved the best overall result in the analyzed field. The process of starting a new business is the most challenging in terms of start-up costs in South America. By contrast, the EU has reached the best result in this process.
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A financial performance-based assessment of SMEs’ competitiveness – an analysis of Hungarian and US small businesses
Vivien Csapi ,
Virgínia Balogh
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.18(3).2020.37
Problems and Perspectives in Management Volume 18, 2020 Issue #3 pp. 452-464 Views: 1863 Downloads: 1126 TO CITE АНОТАЦІЯThe study aims to identify the financial performance measures used as a proxy of the firm-level competitiveness dimensions of small and medium-sized enterprises and their competitiveness. By investigating the factors that affect competitiveness in general, those areas will be introduced, related to an identified competitiveness dimension. Financial and non-financial performance indicators will assess these areas. The paper considers competitiveness as an outcome variable, suggests a relationship between financial performance and the identified areas, and searches for the financial performance measures drivers.
A panel data model was tested on Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and US SMEs. The collected data cover the period between 2013 and 2017. As a result of the applied panel regression, those variables were successfully identified that drive and could predict financial performance measures related to competitiveness. The research found a significant difference between the two-sample dataset results, which differences can be connected to country, industry, and, in general, to economic development characteristics.
The results provide decision-making support and hint about the managerial tools and techniques aiming to control the firm characteristics, performance, and, eventually, firm-level competitiveness. Based on the results, further research can be dedicated to the development characteristics of firm-level competitiveness and the analysis of the relationship between the competitiveness dimensions and competitiveness itself.Acknowledgment
The research was financed by the Higher Education Institutional Excellence Programme of the Ministry for Innovation and Technology in Hungary, within the framework of the 4th thematic programme „Enhancing the Role of Domestic Companies in the Reindustrialization of Hungary” of the University of Pécs.
