Browsing by Author "Van Zyl, Ebben"

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    Factors affecting lecturers’ decision to stay or leave academia, Namibia
    (SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 2022) Pieters, Wesley R.; Van Zyl, Ebben; Nel, Petrus
    Orientation: Attracting and retaining academic staff needs to become a priority for tertiary institutions. Research purpose: Instead of spending funds on replacing staff members, tertiary institutions need to invest in interventions to keep staff committed to and embedded into the organisation. Motivation for the study: Lecturing staff are valuable resources that need to be nurtured, taken care of, and retained to keep tertiary institutions functioning effectively. This study focused on factors that impact lecturing staff’s decision to stay at or leave the University of Namibia. Research approach/design and method: Making use of quantitative research (a questionnaire), data was collected from lecturing staff (n = 242) to investigate the relationship between organisational commitment, job embeddedness and turnover intention. Main findings: Affective commitment, normative commitment, organisational fit and organisational sacrifices reported significant negative relationships with turnover intention. Affective commitment, organisational fit and organisational sacrifice were found to be significant predictors of turnover intention. Practical/managerial implications: Including lecturing staff in the decision-making process, ensuring that there is an equitable exchange for their labour and being fair during interactions enhances psychological meaningfulness and affective commitment. Providing career development opportunities enhances organisational fit, effectiveness of staff and reduces turnover intention. Assessing the job demands-resources relationship remains of cardinal importance. Contributions/value-add: Provision of benefits, employees identifying with the organisation and having the needed resources mitigate the demands of the job, reduce exhaustion, enhance levels of commitment and decrease turnover intention.
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    Job attitudes as a predictor of work engagement of the lecturing staff at the University of Namibia
    (AOSIS, 2019) Pieters, Wesley R.; Van Zyl, Ebben; Nel, Petrus
    Orientation: Engaged employees contribute to the success and productivity of an organisation. Satisfaction of basic psychological needs and organisational commitment (job attitudes) impact positively on work engagement of the lecturing staff. Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of basic psychological need satisfaction and organisational commitment on work engagement of the lecturing staff. Motivation for the study: Organisations realise their objectives through their employees. When employees are not satisfied or committed at work, it can result in low levels of work engagement, absenteeism, exhaustion, cynicism, low productivity and turnover. Research approach/design and method: A cross-sectional survey design was used to collect data of the lecturing staff at the University of Namibia (n = 242). Cronbach’s alpha coefficients, Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analyses were used to analyse the data. Main findings: This study found a positive relationship between basic psychological need satisfaction, organisational commitment and work engagement. Normative and affective commitment was found to be significant predictors of vigour, dedication and absorption (work engagement). Practical/managerial implications: Organisations need to include staff members in the decision-making process, allow employees to direct work-related activities, conduct team building activities, provide training and development activities and regularly assess job satisfaction of the employees. Contribution/value-add: The novelty of this study in Namibia will add to knowledge within industrial or organisational psychology, encourage future research and guide the development of interventions.