Implementation of programmes for maintaining care and safety of learners in secondary schools in the Graaff Reinet education district
- Authors: Bilatyi, Nkosana Carlon
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Schools -- Security measures -- Eastern Cape School environment -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/9379 , vital:34339
- Description: Care and safety of learners refers to the behavioral practices which protect children from danger, risks and injuries. It also includes environment that is free from violence since where there is no fear perceived, there is reverence for the school and its disciplinary measures (Hernandez & Seem, 2004; Marotz, Cross, Rush, 2005; Mathe, 2008; Chukwu, 2008). Schools should have positive environment which allows members of staff, learners and guests to freely interact without threats or fear. Learners and staff should feel psychologically, physically and emotionally safe and secure (Dwyer & Osher, 2000; Tabancali &Bektas, 2009; Butcher& Manning 2005). Consequently, care and safety of learners can also be viewed in a more practical and management oriented way. According to Hull (2010) care and safety of learners in a management oriented way includes, maintenance of school buildings and grounds, care of facilities, furniture and equipment with spacious corridors that allow free flow and emergency movement to prevent illness and death. Classes should accommodate the required educator-learner ratio. The playgrounds are reduced to limited space to ensure that learners are visible and are controllable. Moreover provision of care and safety of learners includes school culture and the appropriate training of educators as well as school staff who should respond to threats and hazards. It also includes addressing the range of crisis the school can face such as death and natural disasters (Phaneuf, 2009). Reeves, Nickerson, Conolly-Wilson, Suson, Lazzaro, Jimerson, and Pesce (2012) contend that the educators on duty should provide learners with safety precautions to guard against the possibility of single learner slipping away and suffering injuries (Dilion, 2007). According to Mogopodi, Banyaladzi & Petros (2015) facilities like laboratories should be suitable for all learners because they help to transform theoretical education into practice making learning effective. Astor, Guerra, Van Acker (2010) suggest that provision of care and safety for learners is among the most essential components for achieving effective teaching and learning. This will only be achieved by putting in place proper care and safety programmes and ensuring that they are effectively implemented (Netshitahame, & Vollenhoven, 2002, Astor et.al.2010).
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- Date Issued: 2018
Servant leadership: antecedent to Quality of Worklife of customer service frontline employees
- Authors: Bedser, Mark Bernard
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Call center agents Servant leadership Customer Service -- Quality control Employee morale Job satisfaction Quality of work life
- Language: English
- Type: text , Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/62144 , vital:28132
- Description: Contact Centre agents operate in closely monitored and highly controlled environments and their work consists of solving service requests or assisting customers with information on products or services. Consequently their work involves a great deal of emotional labour and stress. It is not surprising then, that the working environment of the Contact Centre is reported to have a negative impact on the levels of Quality of Worklife of Contact Centre agents, and that in the Contact Centre context, it is likely that low levels of Quality of Worklife exist. It is argued that it is important for organisations to be particularly aware of the Quality of Worklife perceptions of their employees should they want to address Quality of Worklife levels and benefit from the positive consequences of higher levels of the construct. Numerous variables are reported to play either an antecedent, moderating, mediating, or consequential role in relation to the Quality of Worklife construct. A systems model of Quality of Worklife is developed, which illustrates the inter-relationships of these variables and how they affect and are affected by the Quality of Worklife construct. It is argued that leadership is an important antecedent to Quality of Worklife, and this is the antecedent of interest in this study. It is proposed that it is not just any leadership that will contribute to an improved Quality of Worklife, particularly within a challenging context such as the Contact Centre environment. Rather, it is suggested that certain qualities of leaders will have a greater influence on Quality of Worklife. For example, leaders who focus on relationships and are caring - characteristics associated with servant leaders - are deemed more suitable for the Contact Centre context. The research also proposes that there are close associations between Servant Leadership and Trust, which in turn has the potential to affect Quality of Worklife positively. It is argued, therefore, that Trust mediates the relationship between Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife in the customer service frontline context. While there is a broad base of literature available on servant leadership that focuses on the senior or executive level of leadership, Van Dierendonck and Nuijten (2011) have argued that it is also relevant at the middle level of management and have validated an eight dimensional measure of servant leadership that is suitable for this management level. The Van Laar, Edwards and Easton (2007) Quality of Worklife model is also argued to be an appropriate model and measure of the Quality of Worklife construct, due to the robustness of the instrument design and the appropriateness of its underlying theory to the context of this research. Research has shown that leadership can have a significant relationship with Quality of Worklife. Moreover, a review of the literature on servant leadership reveals that trust, satisfaction, general well-being, and commitment to their jobs increases when employees are exposed to leadership behaviours associated with servant leadership. There is however, no evidence in the literature of any investigation of the relationship between Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife, or of research investigating the partial mediating effects of Trust between these two constructs. Research was conducted to test this relationship. A survey questionnaire was administered amongst a sample of 555 Contact Centre agents, who were employed in eight different organisations. Confirmatory factor analysis procedures were conducted in STATA (V15.0), to test and validate the factor structure of Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife models. The research also produced a Servant Leadership, Trust and Quality of Worklife structural equation model that supported the hypotheses of the relationships between the constructs. Mediation analysis confirmed Trust’s role as a mediator between Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife. The structural equation model confirmed that synergies between Servant Leadership, Trust and Quality of Worklife exist, and that Trust partially mediates the relationship between Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife. It is therefore argued that an increase in Servant Leadership behaviour by the manager or supervisor of frontline staff has a positive association with increases of Trust, as well as positive associations with Quality of Worklife experienced by employees in the frontline context. Moreover, it is also posited that the relationship between Servant Leadership and Quality of Worklife is partially mediated by Trust of the supervisor. The implications of these results are discussed, and recommendations made for management practice and further research.
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- Date Issued: 2018