Employee engagement refers to what takes place when people are interested in a positive way and when they are excited about their jobs, exercise discretionary behaviour and are motivated to achieve high levels of performance. The present research therefore examined employee engagement of the academic staff in the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges in South Africa. A quantitative design was used. In total, 2 054 academic staff completed the questionnaire. A self-administered 4-point Likert-type scale questionnaire was developed. The data was gathered and then analysed by using the Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics were used to present the findings. An employee engagement framework, which incorporates the main ideas of the article, suggests a new perspective about how to foster and manage employee engagement in today's workplace is presented.

Orientation: Multinational corporations (MNCs) in Africa are facing leadership, effectiveness and cultural challenges.Research purpose: The purpose was to determine the relationship between transformational leadership, perceived organisational effectiveness and organisational culture from the perspective of a MNC in Africa.Motivation of the study: Transformational leadership, organisational culture and perceived organisational effectiveness have been studied in different contexts, yet it is not clear how these three variables relate to one another in a selected MNC in Africa.Research approach, design and method: A survey was conducted amongst a non-probability sample of 400 employees from a population of 1256 employees. A quantitative research approach was applied and structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data.Main findings: The results indicated that organisational culture did not positively relate to transformational leadership; perceived organisational effectiveness positively related to organisational culture; perceived organisational effectiveness did not positively relate to transformational leadership; and organisational culture mediated perceived organisational effectiveness and transformational leadership.Practical and managerial implications: The research highlighted the important role of organisational culture in transformational leadership and overall perceived organisational effectiveness.Contribution or value add: This study found that the MNC should focus on organisational culture in order to improve transformational leadership and perceived organisational effectiveness. An academic contribution was the dynamic relationship between the three variables.

Orientation: Certain human resource (HR) competencies are essential to assist with the dynamics of change in the higher education landscape.research purposes: The aim of this study was to determine the HR competencies at a merged higher education institution. Other objectives were to establish the satisfaction of academics, administrative staff and management regarding the HR competencies and the importance thereof.Motivation for the study: Human resource professionals require assistance by providing HR competencies necessary to add value at a merged higher education institution.

One of the challenges facing government departments is the high loss of scarce-skilled employees. When examining departmental processes and procedures, observations were that the organization concerned was experiencing a leadership transition crisis in the absence of the implementation of succession planning. In order to ameliorate this challenge, it is prudent that research into factors and perception of employees on succession planning be conducted to assist with planning of retaining scarce skills and training of employees. A corresponding research study was performed to determine factors related to succession planning, the perceptions of employees and the way different demographic categories perceived succession planning.The response rate of a questionnaire was 34.72%. The items that loaded high were investigated for common themes and four factors emerged after factor analysis, namely organizational support programs, supervisor support, attraction of talent and a performance management system. The findings also indicated that there was a significant difference between groups in the organizational support program in terms of years of service and supervisor support among employees varying in position at the 5% level of significance. The most important implications for managers resulting from this study are that management development by way of succession planning contributes to employee satisfaction and improves the overall outcomes of the organization. Therefore, it can be recommended that there should be personal involvement by top and senior management in terms of personal accountability and responsibility for growing leaders and linking factors related to succession planning to organizational strategy and human resources strategy.

Orientation: The world of work is evolving at an alarming rate, and human resource (HR) practitioners need to familiarise themselves with the future of human resource management (HRM) in order to add value to their organisations.Research purpose: This article presents South African HR practitioners’ views about the future and the role of HRM in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) from a qualitative perspective.Motivation for the study: Human resource practitioners play a central role in the 4IR, but theories on how their role is enacted remain insufficient.Research approach/design and method: A qualitative survey design was used to study the views of 105 HR practitioners affiliated with the South African Board of People Practices. Three open-ended questions were sent to participants by means of a SurveyMonkey link. Deductive and inductive coding were used to thematically analyse the data.Main findings: The following themes were identified: technology-driven, data-driven, ethically driven, change driven, business-driven, human–machine collaboration and presilience.Practical/managerial implications: South African HR practitioners should be prepared for the future world of work. If these HR practitioners are not technology-driven, data-driven, ethically driven, change driven, business-driven, human–machine collaboration and presilient, they may have difficulty to add value to the organisation in the 4IR.Contribution/value-add: This study extends the body of knowledge about the future world of work and the role of HRM in South Africa by founding that HR practitioners must have presilience and respect ubuntu. The study also extends contemporary scholarship by using an open-ended qualitative review design to investigate the future of HRM in South Africa during the 4IR.