| dc.description.abstract | The tertiary education sector recently received much media coverage concerning protests and
violent strikes. Moreover, academic staff members already have to cope with increased job
demands such as academic transformation, change management, a lack of financial resources
(Archibong, Bassey & Effiom, 2010), high strain and work stress (Barkhuizen, Root &
Schutte, 2014). Literature shows that one possible way of supporting academic staff members
in managing work engagement is by providing efficient training and development
opportunities. Hence this study aimed at exploring the relationship between training and
development and work engagement for academic staff members in a qualitative manner. This
research entails two research articles, the second study builds on the findings of the first
study.
The first article explores training and development for academic staff members following a
qualitative research approach. A case study was used as a research strategy. This study used
convenience sampling to select 20 participants. Semi-structured interviews were used as data
gathering method. The data were analysed by means of Creswell’s six steps. The criteria
credibility, consistency, transferability and truth value were used to ensure the validity of the
study. The results of article one indicated that although the tertiary education institutions
mostly have policies and procedures in place to guide the training and development, they
were not applied consistently or effectively. The participants indicated that performance
appraisals were used to determine their training needs, and they further indicated that they
themselves where responsible for requesting training. In the cases where the training was
monitored, the managers or trainers took responsibility for monitoring progress. The type of
training mostly received by the academics related to academic, research, management,
professional and life skills. From the study it is recommended that the tertiary education
institution align the training and development management process with the policies that guide this process. It is recommended that managers be trained as people developers in order
to manage talent effectively.
The second research article explored the relationship between training and development and
work engagement in a tertiary education institution using a qualitative approach and a case
study as research strategy. 20 participants were selected by means of a convenience sampling
method and the researcher gathered data using paper and pencil interview questionnaires. The
data were analysed by using thematic analysis. The results showed that participants viewed
work engagement as having a love for one’s work, enjoying one’s work and showing a
passion for the work one does. The participants indicated that after having received training
and development, they gained new skills, which contributed to increased performance.
Concerning the dimensions of work engagement (vigour, dedication and absorption), the
participants felt more motivated, showed increased competence, more energy, increased
commitment and job satisfaction after having received training and development. However,
the results showed that some training and development opportunities added to their work
load, lacked challenge and was experienced as time consuming and were not sufficient in
addressing their specific needs. From the study it is recommended that the tertiary education
sector provide timeous specialised training and development to academic staff members.
Furthermore, accurately identifying training needs ultimately leads to effective training and
as a result influences the work-related wellbeing of academic staff members. From this
research, recommendations for future research were made and the limitations for this research
were provided | en_US |
