The objective of the present study was to investigate specific retention factors that induced the organisational commitment of high technology employees. A sample of 94 professional technicians from a South African owned telecommunications company based in the Gauteng province participated. The Organisational Commitment Scale and a retention factor measurement scale were administered. The most relevant explanatory factors were compensation, job characteristics, supervisor support, and work/life policies, which appeared to have a statistically significant influence on the development of organisational commitment in high technology employees. The implications of the findings are discussed

The relationship between leaders’ personality preferences, self-esteem and emotional competence is the focus of this article. A study was conducted to analyse the responses of a sample of 107 South African leaders in the manufacturing industry to measures of the three constructs. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), the Culturefree Self-esteem Inventories for Adults (CFSEI-AD), and the 360° Emotional Competency Profiler (ECP) were administered. Positive relationships were found between the three constructs. The self-esteem construct appeared to be a more reliable predictor of emotional competence than the MBTI personality preferences. The findings of the study make an important contribution to the expanding body of knowledge concerned with the evaluation of personality variables that influence the effectiveness of leaders

<strong>Orientation:</strong> The impact of the current skills shortage and demands for retaining talented and skilled staff in a rapidly changing careers context and the consequences for employee loyalty, morale and commitment have led to a renewed interest in the motives, values and career meta-competencies that determine individuals&rsquo; psychological attachment to their organisations and occupations.<p><strong>Research purpose:</strong> The aim of the study was to determine the relationship between the psychological career resources (as measured by the Psychological Career Resources Inventory) and organisational commitment (as measured by the Organisational Commitment Scale).</p><p><strong>Motivation for study:</strong> There appears to be a need for research on the psychological career resources that enhance individuals&rsquo; career agency in proactively managing their career and the way in which these attributes influence their psychological attachment to the organisation in order to guide human resource and career-development support practices in retaining valuable staff.</p><p><strong>Research design, approach and method:</strong> A quantitative survey was conducted on a convenience sample of 358 employed adults at managerial and staff levels in the field of economic and management services.</p><p><strong>Main findings/results:</strong> Correlational and stepwise regression analyses revealed a number of significant relationships between the two variables.</p><p><strong>Practical implications:</strong> Managers and human resource practitioners need to recognise how people&rsquo;s career preferences and career meta-competencies influence their sense of psychological attachment to the organisation.</p><p><strong>Contribution:</strong> The findings add to existing career literature on the psychological factors that affect the retention of staff and provide valuable information that can be used to inform career-development support practices in the contemporary world of work.</p><p><strong>How to cite this article:</strong>Ferreira, N., Basson, J., &amp; Coetzee, M. (2010). Psychological career resources in relation to organisational commitment: An exploratory study. <em>SA Journal of Human Resource Management/ SA Tydskrif vir Menslikehulpbronbestuur, 8</em>(1), Art. #284, 10 pages. DOI: 10.4102/sajhrm.v8i1.284</p>

An attempt was made to describe and to eventually implement work space that can be defined as psychologically meaningful and which has increased during the past 5−10 years. Indications are that various researchers on different continents have embarked on a journey to describe the meaningful workplace. Such a workplace is more than a geographical location, it is psychological space; space where the individual employee performs tasks that construe his or her work role, in collaboration with other individuals, within a framework of predetermined time frames, according to certain procedures, based on identified needs and within a formal workflow structure that is normally referred to as the organisation. Within this framework employees become alienated as a result of which the organisation as well as the individual suffer. The organisation experiences a loss of productivity, quality, innovation, et cetera, and the employee a loss of meaning in life and work. Yet, the workplace remains the space where meaning can be gained. It is both the framework and context for meaningfulness at work. Within this framework certain factors and constitutive elements play a facilitating role in experiencing meaningfulness. Various factors including values, and imbedded therein, the Protestant Ethic (PE), (and various other factors, such as for instance spirituality, culture, leadership and management style, etc.), play an important role as facilitating factors towards the experience of meaningfulness at work. Developing a framework and context, on a conceptual level for the positioning of these factors as contributories towards the meaningful workplace, is a first priority. This is what this article is about: to conceptualise the workplace as psychological space, framework and context for understanding the contributory role of PE (and other factors) towards the experience of meaningfulness at work. The positioning of values and the PE as Max Weber understood the concept will be presented in a follow-on article. PurposeWith this in mind, the imperative imposes itself to, first of all, briefly present the broadest possible framework to the construct: 'A Meaningful Workplace', prior to embarking on a discussion of the PE as a contributory towards a meaningful workplace. Problem statement and purposeThe fundamental problem revolves around the alienation and resultant loss of meaning by individuals in the workplace. As a result there seems to be a movement underfoot to describe the workplace as context for the experience of meaningfulness. However the constituent dimensions are scattered in the literature except for Terez (2000) and Chalofsky (2010). This article addresses the problem of identifying the constituent elements of the meaningful workplace, and presents the construct as context and framework for further investigation (of the different dimensions). Against this backdrop a further article will explore the place and role of Protestant Ethic of the meaningful workplace.

The purpose of this study was to validate the Learning Transfer System Inventory (LTSI) in the South African context. The sample used in this study was a convenience sample of 240 employees working for a Banking group. Exploratory factor analysis of the LTSI was used to determine if an interpretable factor structure of latent transfer system constructs when applied in the South African context could be identified. From the results it appears that the factor structure of the LTSI, as revealed by means of the exploratory approach, appears differently in the South African context.