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

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espect, then labour turnover will be high. Knowledge workers regard the workplaces as a social setting where friendly relations that will improve the work environment are created and maintained. Barney (2002) also found that collegiality among co-workers is a positive influence on employee retention. Conversely, its absence leads to labour turnover. This is especially more pronounced where organisational cultural fit is central to the recruitment and retention of employees. Fitting into an organisational culture becomes even more important when there are prospects of career progression (Gering and Conner, 2002). Culture and quality of relationships at work encourage loyalty to an organisation. For example, being able to develop relationships with senior management is important as it encourages mentorship, career development and evokes excitement in the respective roles they play. Employees that find the organisational culture alienating tend to leave the organisation much sooner. Seven, the relationship of knowledge workers with the organisation’s leadership is more important for retention than HR policies, procedures, processes and practices (Dobbs, 2001). This relationship determines how long an employee will stay with the organisation. Many talented professionals leave an organisation because senior management fails to understand the psychology of work satisfaction and assume that people who excel at work do so because they are happy (Dobbs, 2001). Generally top performers use their own initiative and resourceful nature to deliver and need supportive management to help maintain the correct level of performance and motivation. This requires managers to be constantly in touch with employees in order to gain their confidence, loyalty and productivity (Dobbs, 2001). Pine and Gilmore (1998) contend that subordinates’ perceptions of their boss are the singular best predictor of individual turnover. In a worldwide study the Hay Group (2001) found that the second largest determinant of turnover was due to unhappiness with the direct manager. Eight, in the knowledge society employees are required to acquire knowledge beyond formal education (Sturgess and Guest, 2001). Once past the formal education process, knowledge workers are expected to undergo a continuous learning process. Sturgess and Guest (2001) have found that the lack of provision of career growth, learning, development and mentoring are among the top reasons why knowledge workers leave an employer. Dobbs (2001) also found that knowledge workers respond negatively if an employer does not support a culture of development that is cultivated through training, mentoring and clear career paths, thus confirming Sturgess and 28
Guest’s (2001) findings. The Hay Group (2001) found that lack of development and talent management were the biggest causes of labour turnover. Armstrong and Murlis (2004) arrived at a conclusion, namely that career malaise is the biggest driver of career or employment migration. They also found that whilst promotion is important for knowledge workers, an opportunity to progress has broader meaning than hierarchical advancement. Progression is seen more broadly in terms of developing a career or moving closer to a particularly chosen future role. Nine, another key issue that influences future decisions about remaining in a current job by a knowledge worker is the extent to which there are opportunities to achieve what can be considered the right balance between work and life (Sturgess and Guest, 2001). Knowledge workers resist tying their self-identity with their work identity (Izzo and Whithers, 2002). Knowledge workers want to keep a balance between leisure, family and community time (Izzo and Whithers, 2002). For example, they prefer an option of extended leave as a key workplace benefit. This type of employee regards their life interests as long-held, emotionally driven passions that are intricately intertwined with personality (Sturgess and Guest, 2001). For example, a survey conducted among medical practitioners in the United Kingdom (UK) in 1998 to evaluate their shortage in the National Health System (NHS) found that there was a shortfall of 35% of doctors due to annual turnover (Leese, Young and Sibbald, 2002). The survey ascribed the high turnover rate mainly to health authorities’ inability to provide female doctors with special child-care facilities and family-friendly privileges. Skills can be stretched in many directions but if they are not going in a direction congruent with finding a work-life balance, employees are likely to be dissatisfied and uncommitted to the employer, and will opt to leave. In summary, nine major causes of labour turnover discussed above illustrate the pervasive nature of push factors that influence knowledge workers to leave their employers. These are disillusionment with the status quo; dissonance between the employees’ contribution to the firm’s success and the financial rewards they receive; professional dissatisfaction; being treated as labour instead of being regarded as capital; lack of collegiality among co-workers; poor relationship of knowledge workers with the organisation’s leadership; unavailability of the requisite technology, equipment, resources and tools to carry out work; lack of provision of 29
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 and 28: 1.6.5 Staff Turnover at the Nationa
Page 29 and 30: 2.1 Introduction CHAPTER 2: LITERAT
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: Although knowledge workers may be a
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
Page 79 and 80: As indicated in Figure 3.4, of the
Page 81 and 82: 3.8.7 Number of previous years work
Page 83 and 84: 3.8.9 Divisional distribution This
Page 85 and 86: The Chi test was used to test furth
Page 87 and 88: generated and these are attached as
Page 89 and 90: to a leader who believes in their v
Page 91 and 92: Senge (1990) introduced the concept
Page 93 and 94: According to the literature once kn
Page 95 and 96:
4.3.1 Job enrichment Seventy six pe
Page 97 and 98:
4.3.3 Control over work assignments
Page 99 and 100:
4.3.5 Challenging work For 70% of t
Page 101 and 102:
and RERA are continental initiative
Page 103 and 104:
Table 4.17: Exchange programmes wit
Page 105 and 106:
either work for two years for NERSA
Page 107 and 108:
4.5.1 Sense of achievement and numb
Page 109 and 110:
and Armstrong and Murlis’ (2004)
Page 111 and 112:
Table 4.25 Freedom to plan and exec
Page 113 and 114:
The next chapter explores in greate
Page 115 and 116:
need to create a favourable environ
Page 117 and 118:
5.3.3 Focus on the individual and g
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5.4.1 Factors Analysis: factors tha
Page 121 and 122:
workers’ need for individualism a
Page 123 and 124:
Branham, L. (2005). Keeping the peo
Page 125 and 126:
Dumas, J. and Redish, J. (1999). A
Page 127 and 128:
Kaye, B. and Jordan-Evans, S. (1999
Page 129 and 130:
National Energy Regulator, (2006).
Page 131 and 132:
Sturgess, J. and Guest, D. (2001).
Page 133 and 134:
November 2006 Dear Colleague APPEND
Page 135 and 136:
SECTION 2: FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE Y
Page 137 and 138:
APPENDIX B: SOURCES OF RETENTION VA
Page 139 and 140:
38 Opportunities for feedback, self
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Table 3: Opportunity to achieve per
Page 143 and 144:
Table 9: Information sharing 127 FR
Page 145 and 146:
Table 14: Scope to balance work and
Page 147 and 148:
Table 20: Scope to create desirable
Page 149 and 150:
Table 26: Job enrichment Table 27:
Page 151 and 152:
Table 31: Adequate remuneration, be
Page 153 and 154:
Table 37: Management that values in
Page 155:
Table 43: Reputation of the organis
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