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Employee retention remains a persistent challenge in the South African mining sector due to hazardous working conditions, complex labour relations, and heightened employee expectations. This study explores the influence of the psychological contract on employee retention in a mining organisation. A qualitative research design was adopted, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 participants, comprising 8 employees and 4 managers. Thematic analysis revealed five dominant themes: employee wage demands, perceptions of organisational profitability, investor pressure, strike action, and retrenchment risks. Grounded in Social Exchange Theory and Equity Theory, the findings demonstrate that unmet expectations and perceived unfair treatment undermine trust, strain labour relations, and weaken employee commitment. The study concludes that transparent communication, fair treatment, and realistic management of expectations are essential for strengthening the psychological contract and improving employee retention in mining organisations.

Numerous studies have shown that colleges and departments at the University of Technology (UoT) are frequently overseen by mid-level management, who may not possess a thorough understanding of the potential effects of UoT choices on employee well-being in the workplace. Some of these leaders neglect employees by displaying autocratic or poisonous characteristics, instead than embodying ethical and effective leadership that fosters the principles of 'Spirit of Ubuntu' ethics. Thus, the research aimed to investigate the dynamics of subordinate leadership and employee interactions in the workplace for potential evidence of unethical leadership styles and behaviours at a University of Technology in South Africa. Quantitative data was obtained from 312 out of 420 employees, yielding a response rate of 74%. The inferential results substantiate the alternative hypothesis that lower-level leadership exhibits immoral tendencies in the workplace. Moreover, the findings of the hypothesis indicate that certain lower-level leaders may not consistently exemplify role modelling, transparency, and ethical behaviour. Furthermore, they may neglect to cultivate an environment that emphasises respect, trust, and equality among employees or sufficiently consider the ethical ramifications of UoT decisions. The research consequences indicate that certain lower-level executives lack mentorship, transparency, and ethical conduct. Consequently, certain lower-level leaders are reluctant to exhibit unusual dedication to resolving faculty or departmental issues. The study advocates for the introduction of annual anonymous assessments of subordinate leadership, which may reinforce the UoT’s principles of transparency, professionalism, fairness, responsibility, honesty, and integrity. These research findings may be utilised by other organisations investigating the correlation between lower-level leadership (Supervisors, Heads of Departments, etc.) and employees.

Work engagement is a crucial ingredient that cultivates an individual’s physical and general well-being in the workplace. This, in turn, produces organisational effectiveness and contributes to organisational success and sustainability. Concerningly, work engagement remains under-researched in South African higher education institutions. This study investigated the work engagement experiences of employees in a technical services department of a South African institution of higher education. The study employed qualitative research methods and phenomenological research design. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 10 participants. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. The findings suggest that employees who have optimal work demands receive adequate support to discharge their work and feel engaged and attached to their jobs. The findings further suggest that personal and job resources contribute to improved engagement levels among employees. Organisations should enhance the work engagement of employees by effectively managing their job demands while providing adequate job and personal resources. This study provides insights into the importance of cultivating work engagement within the workplace and the ways to achieve this. The study further provides guidelines for enhancing engagement by highlighting four elements to consider: workload, skills and self-efficacy, tools and equipment, and supervisor and co-worker support.    

Organisational leaders are the most vital and effective machinery that organisations possess to enhance and sustain employee engagement. As such, it is important that they fully understand the significance of the effect of leadership style on employee engagement. Against this background, this paper aims to examine the effect of transformational leadership on employee engagement. A quantitative research methodology was utilised for the data collection and analysis.  The target population for this study comprised the labour force at a specific company in South Africa. The unit of analysis was all individuals employed at the company and could be seen as individuals with an influence on the performance of the company through their level of engagement. A questionnaire with closed-ended questions was utilised to collect data after having obtained an ethical clearance certificate from an institution of higher learning in South Africa. Descriptive statistics and correlational analysis were used to analyse the data. The main finding demonstrates that transformational leadership style has a positive effect on employee engagement. The study underscores the importance of transformational leadership style in fostering employee engagement. The study contributes to the theoretical discourse on leadership by emphasising the need, in an ever-changing competitive business environment, where businesses are constantly striving to achieve a competitive edge over their competitors, for a leadership style that has a positive effect on employee engagement.

Management often promotes internal competition as a means to enhance employee performance; however, the potential adverse effects are frequently neglected. This study investigates the relationships among competitive psychological climate, organizational deviance, moral disengagement, and felt trust. It explores how a competitive climate is associated with organizational deviance through the mechanism of moral disengagement and examines whether felt trust moderates this relationship. Surveys were administered in two phases to 279 full-time employees in Taiwan. Partial least square structural equation modeling was employed to test the hypothesized relationships. Our findings indicate that moral disengagement mediates the relationship between competitive psychological climate and organizational deviance. Furthermore, felt trust moderated both the direct and indirect relationships involving competitive psychological climate. The implication for management is that when employing internal competition to enhance performance, they should consider the potential for deviant behavior and whether it can be mitigated by moderators such as felt trust.

Relational leadership is a key antecedent of employee attitudes and rewards perceptions. However, empirical evidence linking its specific dimensions to compensation outcomes within South Africa’s context remains limited. Drawing on social exchange and equity theories, this study examines how specific relational leadership dimensions influence compensation perceptions. Data was collected from (N = 122) permanently employed personnel at a South African organisation, using a quantitative, cross-sectional design and validated self-report measures. The data was analysed by using Pearson correlations and multiple regression to predict employee compensation through relational leadership. The ethical component emerged as the most consistent and dominant predictor of employee compensation across all models. The empowering component showed significance in one model, but the dimensions usually linked to RLP, including inclusive, caring, and visionary components, had no statistically significant impact on reward outcomes. These findings highlight a critical distinction between behaviours that foster a supportive climate and those that validate the structural legitimacy of reward systems. The study concluded that in socio-economically complex environments like South Africa, employees prioritise ethical governance and fairness over interpersonal warmth when evaluating compensation. Consequently, organisations should prioritise ethical decision-making and transparent accountability in LDPs to enhance satisfaction and perceived equity.

Decent work has become an impetus behind business success and a critical factor for boosting job satisfaction and for alleviating deviant behaviour in the workplace. This study sought to examine the consequences of decent work perception on employee job satisfaction and workplace deviance among casual workers in Zimbabwe transport industry. The study adopted a qualitative research approach embedded in interpretivism paradigm and multiple case-study design. The findings revealed that casual employees experience indecent work characterized by unfair remuneration, job insecurity, and limited employee representation and limited time to rest which affects their overall satisfaction with work. Job dissatisfaction was also found to positively influence negative workplace deviance. An important implication of this study is the need for bus operator companies to understand the value of fostering decent work if they are to have satisfied employees who would be loyal to the organisation and contribute meaningfully to the organisation’s bottom-line. The study is expected to contribute to empirical evidence on the consequences of decent work on job satisfaction and workplace deviance and provide recommendations to human resource practitioners on the essence of addressing workplace deviance and boosting employee job satisfaction through upholding decent work standards in the workplace.

In contemporary organizations, leaders are increasingly required to manage contradictory demands while supporting employees’ psychological resources in dynamic and uncertain work environments. This study examines the effects of paradoxical leadership on two important employee-level outcomes: creative self-efficacy and resilience. Drawing on Social Cognitive Theory and Conservation of Resources Theory, the study aims to explain how leaders who simultaneously balance autonomy and control, flexibility and structure, and support and challenge can strengthen employees’ confidence in generating creative solutions and their capacity to adapt to workplace difficulties. A quantitative research design was employed, using survey data collected from employees working in the Information and Communication Technology sector. The proposed relationships were tested through structural equation modeling, after assessing the reliability and validity of the measurement model. The findings indicate that paradoxical leadership has a significant positive effect on both creative self-efficacy and employee resilience. These results suggest that paradoxical leaders can help employees interpret complexity as manageable, maintain confidence in their creative abilities, and recover more effectively from setbacks. Theoretically, the study contributes to paradoxical leadership research by positioning creative self-efficacy and resilience as key psychological outcomes of paradoxical leader behavior. Practically, the findings suggest that organizations, particularly in technology-intensive sectors, should develop leaders’ capacity for paradoxical thinking and balanced leadership behaviors in order to foster a more creative, adaptive, and resilient workforce.

Employee retention remains a persistent challenge in the South African mining sector due to hazardous working conditions, complex labour relations, and heightened employee expectations. This study explores the influence of the psychological contract on employee retention in a mining organisation. A qualitative research design was adopted, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 participants, comprising 8 employees and 4 managers. Thematic analysis revealed five dominant themes: employee wage demands, perceptions of organisational profitability, investor pressure, strike action, and retrenchment risks. Grounded in Social Exchange Theory and Equity Theory, the findings demonstrate that unmet expectations and perceived unfair treatment undermine trust, strain labour relations, and weaken employee commitment. The study concludes that transparent communication, fair treatment, and realistic management of expectations are essential for strengthening the psychological contract and improving employee retention in mining organisations.

Numerous studies have shown that colleges and departments at the University of Technology (UoT) are frequently overseen by mid-level management, who may not possess a thorough understanding of the potential effects of UoT choices on employee well-being in the workplace. Some of these leaders neglect employees by displaying autocratic or poisonous characteristics, instead than embodying ethical and effective leadership that fosters the principles of 'Spirit of Ubuntu' ethics. Thus, the research aimed to investigate the dynamics of subordinate leadership and employee interactions in the workplace for potential evidence of unethical leadership styles and behaviours at a University of Technology in South Africa. Quantitative data was obtained from 312 out of 420 employees, yielding a response rate of 74%. The inferential results substantiate the alternative hypothesis that lower-level leadership exhibits immoral tendencies in the workplace. Moreover, the findings of the hypothesis indicate that certain lower-level leaders may not consistently exemplify role modelling, transparency, and ethical behaviour. Furthermore, they may neglect to cultivate an environment that emphasises respect, trust, and equality among employees or sufficiently consider the ethical ramifications of UoT decisions. The research consequences indicate that certain lower-level executives lack mentorship, transparency, and ethical conduct. Consequently, certain lower-level leaders are reluctant to exhibit unusual dedication to resolving faculty or departmental issues. The study advocates for the introduction of annual anonymous assessments of subordinate leadership, which may reinforce the UoT’s principles of transparency, professionalism, fairness, responsibility, honesty, and integrity. These research findings may be utilised by other organisations investigating the correlation between lower-level leadership (Supervisors, Heads of Departments, etc.) and employees.