- Title
- The influence of psychological capital on the work engagement of employees selling insurance in South Africa
- Creator
- Lufundo, Siyamthanda
- Subject
- Human capital -- Psychological aspects
- Subject
- Employee motivation
- Subject
- Psychology, Industrial
- Date Issued
- 2025-04
- Date
- 2025-04
- Type
- Master's theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/72883
- Identifier
- vital:79274
- Description
- Employees who sell insurance work in a challenging work environment. Job demands include having to recruit and convince potential clients to buy insurance products so that the employees are able to achieve sales targets. Employees who sell insurance face diverse people and are often subjected to rejection and criticism. These demanding work-related conditions can result in stress, burnout, a lack of job satisfaction, and a decrease in productivity; with these issues impacting both the employee and the organisation. The concepts of psychological capital (PsyCap) and work engagement offer valuable insight into how employees can not only cope with a stressful work environment but also thrive in a high-pressure environment. Both constructs have been applied in research in various work settings in South Africa, but not in the insurance industry. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate PsyCap among employees who sell insurance in South Africa and to determine how it influences their work engagement. A non-experimental research design, specifically a correlational and descriptive design, was used for this study. Convenience sampling and snowball sampling were employed in the study, with 113 respondents completing an online questionnaire as the data-collecting tool. The Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ-24) was used to measure PsyCap and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-17) was used to measure work engagement among the sample of employees who sell insurance in South Africa. The study found that the respondents had high levels of PsyCap and experienced work engagement. Furthermore, the study found a positive relationship between PsyCap and work engagement, with PsyCap being a predictor of work engagement. It was evident that the respondents used their personal resources to cope with job demands and that this led to work engagement. Future research can consider personal resources other than PsyCap that employees can use to deal with high job demands.
- Description
- Thesis (MCom) -- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences, School of Industrial Psychology and Human Resources, 2025
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (170 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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- Visitors: 4
- Downloads: 1
Collections
NMU School of Industrial Psychology and Human Resources
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | LUFUNDO, S.pdf | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |