Orientation: The unemployment rate within the South African context is on the rise. Given this, there is a need to understand factors influencing employability amongst a sample of final-year students in preparation for their transit into the labour market. Research purpose: The overall objective of this research was to explore final-year students’ perceptions of factors that affect employability. This was amongst a sample of students that were enrolled at a rural university in South Africa. Motivation for the study: Within graduate employability studies, calls have been made to understand the factors around employability especially within a context of high unemployment. This study allows for an understanding of the journey from higher education into the labour market for previously disadvantaged individuals. Research approach/design and method: An interpretivist, qualitative research approach using an exploratory research design was adopted to explore student perceptions and concerns of employability. Focus-group interviews were used as a data gathering technique amongst 30 final-year students about to exit the university system. Data were recorded, transcribed and processed, and narrative analysis used. Main findings: Through the analysis, a set of six factors were perceived to influence employability: (1) poor socio-economic status, (2) a poor education system, (3) curriculum issues, (4) the choice of higher education institution and (5) social connections to which the student belongs to. Practical/managerial implications: Through the identified factors, career counsellors can better understand their clients and those issues that shape their lived experiences. The findings can also assist the provision of better career guidance services. Contribution/value-add: This study provides an understanding of the complex issues facing potential graduates through lived experiences. It provides an understanding of student perceptions towards employability, which policymakers should consider when addressing the issue of unemployment in the country.

Orientation: Organisations are turning to the Internet in search for talent. A constituency often targeted are those students nearing the end of their tenure of study who are making a transition into the working world. Given this, it is important to understand not only those factors that influence the use of the Internet within the Human Resources (HR) talent search process, but also how such factors relate to actual intent to apply for jobs.Research purpose: Drawing on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model, the study investigates factors that influence the adoption of the Internet for purposes of job seeking.Motivation for the study: Calls have been made for research that investigates factors that influence the intention to use the Internet to apply for jobs in developing countries such as South Africa.Research approach, design and method: The study used the quantitative approach (relying on a survey) to test the hypotheses into factors that influence the use of Internet for the purpose of job seeking amongst a sample of 346 prospective job seekers in their final year of study at a South African university.Main findings: Through correlation and regression analysis, findings reveal a positive relationship to exist between (1) performance expectancy with intention to use the Internet to apply for jobs, (2) effort expectancy with intention to use the Internet to apply for jobs, (3) individual effort expectancy and performance expectancy and (4) individual trust and the intention to use the Internet for job seeking. However, no relationship was found to exist between facilitating conditions and intention to use the Internet for job seeking.Practical/managerial implications: The findings magnify the role of salient factors in the intention to use the Internet for job-seeking purposes. Efforts from applicants, universities, recruitment agencies and organisations, potentially, have an effect on the intention to use the Internet for job-seeking purposes. Such efforts may enhance the students’ online experience and minimise problems that accompany technology adoption for the purposes of recruitment. Findings from this research may help enhance the online recruitment experience both from the end-user and recruiter perspective.Contribution/value-add: The study contributes to the recruitment literature in three ways: Firstly, UTAUT is shown to be a useful framework to explain final-year, job-seeking students’ intention to use the Internet to apply for jobs. Furthermore, the findings illustrate the value of the UTAUT as a model useful in enhancing understanding on intentions. Secondly, the study places focus on the human factor rather than facilitating conditions as important issues regarding intention to use the Internet to apply for a job. Finally, based on these findings, future angles of research that have academic and practitioner implications are proposed.

The study examines (Camman, Fichman & Klesh, 1979) and a third assessment item from Landau and Hammer (1986). Data analysis was done by means of the Pearson Product Moment Correlation technique, and Multiple Regression analysis. The results obtained from this study showed that there is a significant positive association between intrinsic motivation, job involvement and employee retention. The results further showed that employee's intrinsic motivation and job involvement have an influence on employee's intention to quit.The results further showed that intrinsic motivation is the strongest predicator of employee retention, followed by job involvement. The practical implications of this study mainly relate to employee retention or prevention of a high rate of labour turnover.

Orientation: Although researchers have discovered many of the beneficial and positive consequences of job engagement, little is known about the multitude of antecedent factors that lead to employee engagement such as personality.Research purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between the big five personality traits and job engagement among municipal workers.Motivation for the study: The motivation of this study is to examine the relationship between personality and psychological conditions. It was premised on previous research that personality is associated with many employees’ behaviours.Research approach/design and method: The present study employed a quantitative, cross-sectional research design by using a questionnaire on a sample of 403 district municipal workers in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa.Main findings: The study findings show that openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness had a positive relationship with job engagement, whereas neuroticism has a negative relationship with job engagement. Municipalities and educational qualifications had an impact of job engagement.Practical/managerial implications: The study recommends managers to switch from an intervention-based focus to a selection-based focus as municipalities can maximise their resources by being able to better predict job success early in the selection process as opposed to trying to maximise the performance on a continual basis through interventions.Contribution/value-add: This study adds to an understanding of the influences of personality on work outcomes such as job engagement, giving areas for exploration in coaching or feedback interviews based on personality assessment.

It is a documented fact that occupational stress is widespread worldwide. Moreover, there are clear signs of many variables, related to occupational stress. The study therefore, was conducted to demonstrate whether the presence of occupational stress in the world of work correlates in any form (positive or negative) with a better level of organisational performance and employee psychological wellbeing.The study adopted the positivist explanatory cross-sectional (survey) research design to systematically sample opinions of 1,532 male and female graduate employees across the various sectors of the Nigerian economy, using a structured and validated questionnaire, and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).The results showed that there was a weak positive relationship between occupational stress and organisational citizenship behaviour (r = 0.070, p<0.01); there was a significant positive relationship between occupational stress and psychological capital (r = 0.128, p<0.01); and there was a significant positive relationship between psychological capital and organisational citizenship behaviour (r = 0.588, p<0.01).The study recommended that human resource managers should develop psychological capital in employees in order to increase their levels of organisational performance and reduce the negative impact of occupational stress.