Thami Nompula MBA Dissertation March 2007 - Rhodes eResearch ...

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1.7 The Research Problem Labour turnover is by no means a new challenge for organisations, however high staff turnover can threaten the survival of organisations. The high labour turnover at the National Energy Regulator is also threatening the long-term survival and effectiveness of the organisation. To mitigate this challenge, it is important to find creative and sustainable ways of retaining employees for effective and efficient energy regulation to take place. The aim of this research is to identify and understand key retention drivers that can contribute positively to the success of building a sustainable regulatory environment and to identify and understand factors that cause labour turnover among knowledge workers at the Energy Regulator, in particular. To date, it would seem that no research of this nature has been undertaken in the regulation industry. 1.8 Structure of the Report The report is divided into five chapters: Chapter 1 has been the introduction to the study, the background to the research problem and the importance of the study; Chapter 2 is the literature review which is dedicated to building a theoretical base that seeks to bring an understanding of the role knowledge workers play in driving modern organisations in the knowledge economy; Chapter 3 details the research methodology which describes the method used in conducting the research, namely the survey method; Chapter 4 provides an analysis of the results and findings from the responses from the questionnaire and Chapter 5 presents the conclusion and recommendations on effective and sustainable strategies for retaining knowledge workers. 12
2.1 Introduction CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW The new economy is often referred to as the knowledge economy (Drucker, 1994). Emerging from the industrial age, this new economy distinguishes itself by a large amount of the value of the company residing in the head of employees rather than employees being the tangible assets of the company. In fact, Kaye and Jordan-Evans (2002) assert that never before have organisations relied so heavily on their human assets for their competitive advantage than they do on knowledge workers. This chapter is dedicated to building a theoretical base that seeks to bring an understanding of the role knowledge workers play in driving modern organisations in the knowledge economy. The chapter is divided into four sections: the first section introduces the concept of knowledge management by defining terminology such as ‘intellectual capital’, the ‘knowledge worker’ and ‘structural capital’. The second section explores the importance of knowledge workers in regulatory institutions; the third section explores the issue of labour turnover and its impact on the competitiveness and effectiveness of modern enterprises. The last section explores the concept of retention and examines a number of factors and strategies that could contribute to the retention of knowledge workers. 2.2 Intellectual Capital and the Knowledge Worker 2.2.1 The knowledge worker concept In the modern economy, knowledge work applies not only to the domain of intellectual activity, but also to the pragmatic activity of devising new products, services, applications and processes. In this sense, organisations involved in any of these activities are increasingly moving towards being knowledge-based communities which embody the knowledge of its workers in its products and services (Drucker, 1994; Despres and Hiltrop, 1995). As knowledge work is distinctly different from functional roles which depend largely on the routine of jobs and the systems that support them, knowledge workers apply their theoretical and practical understanding of an area of knowledge to produce outcomes. They therefore rely on specialist education, usually gained 13
Page 1 and 2: AN EXPLORATORY INVESTIGATION OF THE
Page 3 and 4: Declaration I, Thami Ignatius Nompu
Page 5 and 6: Acknowledgements A number of people
Page 7 and 8: 2.2.4 Definition of knowledge work
Page 9 and 10: 3.6.2 Factors that influenced the c
Page 11 and 12: CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMEND
Page 13 and 14: Table 4.21 Sense of achievement ana
Page 15 and 16: LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix A: The
Page 17 and 18: 1.1 Introduction CHAPTER 1: INTRODU
Page 19 and 20: 1.3 The National Energy Regulator T
Page 21 and 22: 1.5 The Importance of Knowledge Wor
Page 23 and 24: continuous success. South Africa, a
Page 25 and 26: 1.6.2 Cost of turnover and opportun
Page 27: 1.6.5 Staff Turnover at the Nationa
Page 31 and 32: Knowledge-based organisations rely
Page 33 and 34: 2.2.5 Definition of a knowledge wor
Page 35 and 36: • Knowledge workers tend to work
Page 37 and 38: esent unnecessary supervision; they
Page 39 and 40: equipment, exist and are worth cult
Page 41 and 42: the organisation that cause or are
Page 43 and 44: Although knowledge workers may be a
Page 45 and 46: Guest’s (2001) findings. The Hay
Page 47 and 48: ecruiters. In the United States top
Page 49 and 50: sustainable objectives both for the
Page 51 and 52: 2.5 The Work Dimension According to
Page 53 and 54: environment is more conducive to hi
Page 55 and 56: improved productivity and a longer
Page 57 and 58: 2.7.1 Quality of leadership Quality
Page 59 and 60: leave an organisation because senio
Page 61 and 62: 2.8.3 Capacity Building In an attem
Page 63 and 64: for staff working for regulatory in
Page 65 and 66: 3.1 Introduction CHAPTER 3: RESEARC
Page 67 and 68: inefficiencies of management may le
Page 69 and 70: 2004). Furthermore, because the int
Page 71 and 72: According to Walonick (2004), one o
Page 73 and 74: contained section one of the questi
Page 75 and 76: Wisniewski (2002) describes reliabi
Page 77 and 78: Of the 34 respondents, there were m
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As indicated in Figure 3.4, of the
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3.8.7 Number of previous years work
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3.8.9 Divisional distribution This
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The Chi test was used to test furth
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generated and these are attached as
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to a leader who believes in their v
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Senge (1990) introduced the concept
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According to the literature once kn
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4.3.1 Job enrichment Seventy six pe
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4.3.3 Control over work assignments
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4.3.5 Challenging work For 70% of t
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and RERA are continental initiative
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Table 4.17: Exchange programmes wit
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either work for two years for NERSA
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4.5.1 Sense of achievement and numb
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and Armstrong and Murlis’ (2004)
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Table 4.25 Freedom to plan and exec
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The next chapter explores in greate
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need to create a favourable environ
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5.3.3 Focus on the individual and g
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5.4.1 Factors Analysis: factors tha
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workers’ need for individualism a
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Branham, L. (2005). Keeping the peo
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Dumas, J. and Redish, J. (1999). A
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Kaye, B. and Jordan-Evans, S. (1999
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National Energy Regulator, (2006).
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Sturgess, J. and Guest, D. (2001).
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November 2006 Dear Colleague APPEND
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SECTION 2: FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE Y
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APPENDIX B: SOURCES OF RETENTION VA
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38 Opportunities for feedback, self
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Table 3: Opportunity to achieve per
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Table 9: Information sharing 127 FR
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Table 14: Scope to balance work and
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Table 20: Scope to create desirable
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Table 26: Job enrichment Table 27:
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Table 31: Adequate remuneration, be
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Table 37: Management that values in
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Table 43: Reputation of the organis
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