...THE EFFECT OF SELF-LEADERSHIP AND LOCUS OF CONTROL ON WORK STRESS AMONGST MANAGERS IN THE FINANCIAL SERVICES SECTOR By Agnes Akwa Nde Student number: 2009103587 A Dissertation submitted in Accordance with the Requirements for the Award of a MAGISTER COMMERCII Degree In Industrial Psychology Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences The University of the Free State Supervisor: Prof. Ebben Van Zyl Co-Supervisors: Dr Petrus Nel & Dr Estelle Boshoff Bloemfontein, 2015 DECLARATION I declare that this dissertation hereby submitted by me for a Masters of Commerce degree at the University of the Free State is my own independent work and has not been previously been submitted by me at another university/faculty. I furthermore cede copyright of the dissertation in favour of The University of the Free State. .............................................................................. Signature .............................................................................. Date [ii] ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A project of this nature could not have been complete without the support of some people. At this juncture, I will like to recognize the assistance of such people who made indispensable contributions towards the realisation of this work. I received much technical support from my supervisor Prof Ebben Van Zyl and cosupervisors Dr Petrus Nel and Dr Estelle Boshoff. I appreciate all the efforts they made in seeing that this study...
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...Journal of Research and Reflections in Education June 2014, Vol.8, No.1, pp 22 -33 http://www.ue.edu.pk/jrre Academic Locus of Control of High and Low Achieving Students Syeda Salma Hasan, *2 Ruhi Khalid Email: s.salmahasan@hotmail.com *1 The study investigated the academic locus of control of high and low achieving undergraduate students. It also explored the gender differences in terms of academic locus of control and the relationship between academic locus of control and academic achievement . Sample of the study consisted of 187 (126 high and 61 low) achieving BSc final year students. Independent group research design and purposive sampling technique was used in this study. Academic locus of control scale developed by Trice (1985) was administered. The scale classifies the students having scores from 0-14 as internals and with the score above than 14 as externals. Two –Factor ANOVA, correlation and simple linear regression was used to analyze the data. Results indicated a significant main effect of achiever and gender and no interaction between gender and achiever was found. High achieving students scored low on academic locus of control which indicates their strong internal academic orientation than low achieving students. Interestingly study indicated that high as well as low achieving students both hold an internal academic belief system towards the academic situations. Women are significantly high on an internal academic locus of control indicating less internal...
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...qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmrtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmrtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmrtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmrtyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnmqwer...
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...My personal challenge with pessimistic and procrastinating habits In the lecture, we discussed about the pessimistic explanatory style and optimistic explanatory style. These two distinct explanatory styles led completely different form of results in terms of individual performances; the discussion of these explanatory styles was previously proven with various stunning statistics. In 1987, Kamen and Seligman studied on predicted grade point average for the University of Pennsylvania freshmen. Students with overachieving explanatory style have gotten greater grade point average than those of students with underachieving explanatory style (Kamen and Seligman, presented in lecture). Intrigued by the information, I investigated my own problematic explanatory style and related negative results. I hope to identify my own behaviors, feelings, thoughts, and changes in both psychological and neurological perspectives. As my graduation-time comes closer, I had to make a big decision of my life. It was my life changing decision of whether I stay in the United States or go back in my home country. Frankly, I have already made a decision to go back to South Korea a while ago. Yet, I was often confused and nervous about the decision that I have made because of my explanatory style. Since I do not have a plan other than preparing for a graduate school from the moment I leave the school, I know it would be better for me to have optimistic beliefs constantly reminding myself, “I will be okay...
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...In social psychology there are many aspects of the things that we do in our daily lives that have been scientifically investigated through scientific method for the sake of getting to know human behavior and to put reasoning behind the thought, feeling and behavior of human beings as they are influence by our environment and others, basically why we do what we do. Social psychology looks at a wide range of social topics some of which are perception, behavior, conformity, aggression and prejudice to name a few. This paper will highlight a few of the terminologies and theories in this discipline also give overview to some of these afore mentioned topics. Starting with the terminology used in social psychology we look at the concept of self, it is stated in the text Introduction to Social Psychology self-concept “is the collection of things you know about yourself—such as your overall cognitive understanding (learned beliefs, attitudes, and opinions) about yourself” (Feenstra, 2011). Looking at this statement, it can be determined that the ideas learned throughout life about one’s self is a product self-concept. Self schema is what is understood and gathered from self-concept. Text defines self-schema as “organizing this information, affecting how we view the world and takes in information” (Feenstra, 2011). What are gathered from a person as far as the sports they may play, going to church and time spent with my family are all things that can attribute to ones self-concept...
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...Personality and Individual Differences 46 (2009) 147–153 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid Cognitive-behavioural training to change attributional style improves employee well-being, job satisfaction, productivity, and turnover Judith G. Proudfoot a,*, Philip J. Corr b, David E. Guest c, Graham Dunn d a School of Psychiatry and Black Dog Institute, University of New South Wales, Randwick 2031, Australia Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK c Kings College London, University of London, UK d Health Methodology Research Group, School of Community Based Medicine, University of Manchester, UK b a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t We report, for the first time in the literature, a cognitive-behavioural training waiting-list controlled study that changed employees’ attributional style, reduced turnover, increased productivity, and improved a number of individual differences measures of well-being. One hundred and sixty-six financial services sales agents (98% male, mean age 36.2 ± 9 years) were randomly assigned to either (a) a sevenweek cognitive-behavioural training program or (b) a waiting-list. Significant improvements resulted in employees’ attributional style, job satisfaction, self-esteem, psychological well-being and general productivity. A significant reduction in employee turnover over a 4.5 month period was observed...
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...QA Concept Introducing LoadRunner • Why should you automate performance testing? • What are the LoadRunner components? • Understanding LoadRunner Terminology • What is the load testing process? • Getting Familiar with HP Web Tours • Application Requirements The Power of LoadRunner • Creating the Load Test • Running the Load Test • Monitoring the Load Test • Analyzing Results Building Scripts • Introducing the Virtual User Generator (VuGen) • How do I start recording user activities? • Using VuGen’s Wizard mode • How do I record a business process to create a script? • How do I view the script? Playing Back Your Script • How do I set the run-time behavior? • How do I watch my script running in real time? • Where can I view information about the replay? • How do I know if my test passed? • How do I search or filter the results? Solving Common Playback Problems • Preparing HP Web tours for playback errors • How do I work with unique server values? Preparing a Script for Load Testing • How do I measure business processes? • How do I emulate multiple users? • How do I verify Web page content? • How can I produce debugging information? • Did my test succeed? Creating a Load Testing Scenario • Introducing the LoadRunner Controller • How do I start the Controller? • The Controller window at a glance • How do I modify the script details? • How do I generate a heavy load? • How do I emulate real load...
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...Preparing Business Scenario Analyses The following general guidelines may be used in preparing for an oral or written business scenario analysis and presentation. There may be several feasible courses of action regarding the solution to any case. It is more important to concern yourself with the process of problem definition and isolation, analysis, and evaluation of alternatives, and the choice of one or more recommendations, rather than trying to find a single answer. Very often, the right answer is the one that you can propose, explain, defend, and make work. • The Process of Analyzing a Case 1. Read and study the scenario thoroughly and efficiently. Read the scenario once for familiarity, noting issues that come to the forefront. Read the scenario again. Determine all the facts, making notes about symptoms of problems, root problems, unresolved issues, and roles of key players. Watch for issues beneath the surface. 2. Isolate the problem(s). Get a feel for the overall environment by putting yourself in the position of one of the key players. Seek out the pertinent issues and problems. 3. Analyze and evaluate alternatives. a. Once the problems and issues are isolated, work at gaining a better understanding of causes. In what area of the unit do the problems exist? Why? What caused them? Examine and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the unit’s processes (e.g., planning, communication), human behaviors, and/or exhibits (e.g., financial statements,...
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...PEST Analysis One way of planning your business is to undertake a PEST analysis.1 PEST analysis involves looking at the Political, Economic, Socio-cultural and Technological factors that could affect your business. Every business needs to consider a range of external forces in order to take decisions. For many people imagination is very limited and is coloured solely by their own experience and personal beliefs. This can lead to wish fulfilment or a refusal to see reality or recognise the critical changes that are happening in the world around them. It can also lead to grabbing short-term solutions that, if they do not exacerbate problems, certainly ignore the longer term. In the business world pressure is often applied to take decisions quickly, acting on judgement and instinct rather than careful analysis. There are many driving forces in the external environment that might impact on your business. These can be categorised as: • Social; • Technological; • Economic; • Environmental; and • Political. Social forces Social forces include, for example, changing demography and education, etc. The population in Western Europe is relatively static, but the age bands are changing. The number of older people, for example, is growing rapidly. Technological forces Technological forces are changing dramatically quickly. What effects will this have on your production, marketing and distribution plans? Depending on your market, technology might either raise or lower entry barriers...
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...Fall 2015: Industry Analysis in Emerging Markets Your role in this analysis is to work with your team and to look at emerging technologies. From autonomous drones to emergent AI to 3D printers, you are going to research and get a better understanding of our fast-approaching technological future. Scientific American compiled the Top 10 List of Emerging Technologies for 2015. You can start here, but you are not limited to these technologies. You must choose an emerging industry, and will analyze the history of this technology and its industry, the trajectories of the technology, the key competitors, and the trends in the market. The end goal is to develop a comprehensive understanding of the industry, the competitive landscape, emerging trends to watch in the future, and an overall assessment as to the attractiveness of this industry. Your final deliverable for this project will be an in-class presentation, due April 26th. 1) What SIC/NAICS code does your industry fall under? 2) Describe your industry- a. Provide a brief history of your industry. (You may use a timeline in a separate appendix) b. List and describe the characteristics of the products your industry offers in the marketplace. c. Who are the key competitors in the industry? d. What are the main differences between the products offered by key competitors? e. What strengths & weaknesses (capabilities, complementary resources, related intellectual property, etc.)...
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...http://www.mysensex.comPESTLE « Pestle Summary: India | Main | Pestle summary: USA » 03/28/2009 Pestle Summary China Well, I guess this is where I get controversial, at least a bit. There are others who have predicted that China was in for a tough ride over the past few years, but they mostly got ignored, or were proven wrong by events. And, to a certain extent, if you cry doom long enough you'll always get proved right, given the laws of entropy. So this is a bit 'faux' controversy... This is the introductory note taking exercise for a Pestle analysis of China, drawn on conventional internet sources such as Wikipedia, the CIA World Factbook and Nationmaster. China is the most populous country in the world, with 1.34 billion people. It has the third largest GDP, with $4.84 trillion, behind Japan and the U.S. Like India, the currency and conditions make it useful to look at some statistics using Purchasing Power Parity, which bumps up China's GDP to $7.8 trillion, which would move it ahead of Japan. It also is the second in the world in annual military spending, although that needs a bit of context, as the world's number two spends about 15% of what the world number one (USA) spends. But with PPP, that looks like more money, and insofar as it is used to pay salaries, rather than buy Israeli rocket parts, PPP is valid in this context too. China is badly governed by the Communist Party, and in my five-year Pestle forecast I will be making the case that misgovernance will...
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...McCauley, COO * Hugh McCauley, COO of Riordan has sent a service request to us. The service request SR-rm-022 stats that Riordan wants to make improvement on their current HR tools. They are currently using a variety of HR tools and would want’s us create one integrated application. To do this we will have to do a system analysis of their current system. An analysis will be made with recommendations to upgrade and consolidate their system. * The service request is basically a project statement. This is a document from the customer who clearly states what the project should deliver and outline the high-level work required for completing this project * (SR-rm-022). Riordan Manufacturing has 550 employees worldwide and has projected earnings of $46 million. It is a fortune 1000 enterprise with $1 billion in excess revenues. It is wholly owned by Riordon Industries and based in San Jose , California. * . We will use the joint application design (JAD) for our system analysis, this should help keep the analysis efforts to a minimum. Fact finding is at the core of system analysis. Interviewing of individuals who understand the current system and any known issues, including future activities needed. To do this observation of how data is handled and how this is used for their jobs. Through study of the documents, policies, and procedures in reference to the system. * Interviewing and gathering...
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...29th, 2013 Angela Lucente Planning For People Job analysis is an important process, any organization used to use it in order to collect information and data about required skills, level of education, work environment, responsibilities, and the duties to create a job description, recruiting plans, and performance development planning (Susan M. Heatfield, 2013). Once job analyses are updated as described, a summary of the results is normally prepared in writing in the form of a job description (Wayne F. Cascio, 2010). According to my reading chapter five about job analysis process. There are some topics I felt comfortable with, such as alternative perspectives on jobs. This topic add to my knowledge many information and explained how jobs are important to organizations, what is the highly unusual jobs that some organizations required it, and distinguish job analysis form job design (Wayne F. Cascio, 2010). On the other hand, I struggled with topic job requirements because there are many methods created in order to study job requirements and none of them alone is sufficient. Thus, it is essential to integrate this methods to obtain the results of the tasks and duties of a job (Wayne F. Cascio, 2010). It is not that easy to implement the methods of job analysis, such as job performance, observation, interview, critical incidents, and structured questionnaire, those are the most five common methods of job analysis and each one of those takes time and effort to achieve desirable...
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...------------------------------------------------- Running header: Job Analysis Methods ------------------------------------------------- Abstract Examination of different methods utilized to create a comprehensive job analysis, including advantages and disadvantages of all approaches. There are several methods that can be utilized to create a comprehensive job analysis. A job analysis provides a better understanding of the positions within an organization, which will allow the recruitment process to be more focused, consistent and thorough. The first method that can be employed to create an effective job analysis is the Critical Incidents Technique. This technique identifies circumstances that arise in a current position, what action was taken, and the consequences of the action, to identify the effective and ineffective behaviors in job performance. These critical situations are documented by interviewing former jobholders, supervisors, or by reviewing documents and logs from the job. Job duties are examined, and then critical incidents are identified to determine poor or good performance issues related to a specific job requirement. This technique is useful for covering job events that may not be covered in a general job description. Identifying atypical circumstances that may arise in a position can aid in finding a candidate that would be an ideal fit. Reviewing these critical incidents also enable the recruitment process to be shaped to include more pointed questions...
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...to accomplish that soon, also technology is to expensive. Other companies building autonomous cars said that they are working on vehicles that will be able to safely make that switch. Volvo says that it expects to have its cars tested on city streets by 2020. The Google management team faced several questions. Should Google continue to invest in the technology behind self-driving cars? How could Google's core software-based and search business benefit from self-driving car technology? As large auto manufacturers began to invest in automotive technology themselves, could Google compete? Was this investment of time and resources worth it for Google? Environmental Scanning (external and internal analysis): PEST Analysis After reading the case study Google car I have used the PEST analysis model in which the following was concluded: 1. Political Factors: Government’s regulations on automobile transportation are one of the major aspects in Google's car that have legal barriers. Due to that most of the governments do not have specific laws for self-driving vehicle and there are no federal standards for autonomous cars special permission in all US states adjusted for road test. Laws need to be adapted to accidents liability for insurance purposes. 2. Economic Factors: Cost is a concern, due to the investment in technology required to be adapted to cars an estimated of $150,000 in equipment. The consumers are not willing to spend more than $3,000 for autonomous driving applications...
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