The influence of individual attitudes on work performance in the South African coal mining industry

Abstract

South Africa as a country is amongst one of the main producers and exporters of coal in the world. The country’s coal-producing capacity experiences infrastructural constraints especially in its ability to export due to limited rail and coal seaport capacities. Productivity for volumes currently produced is at worryingly low levels in comparison to other coal producing countries despite the use of similar production and mining techniques. The causes of the poorer and declining employee performance levels; resulting in more employees required for the same work volume; are largely attributed to shorter working days, skill levels, logistical constraints and choice of extraction methods among others. The purpose of this study is to bring to the fore the influence of individual attitudes on work performance in the South African coal mining industry. Current research indicates that there exists a relationship between work performance, and job satisfaction, job involvement, organisational commitment, and organisational citizenship behaviour. Empirical study results indicated that individual work performance is statistically and practically significantly related (large effect size) to organisational citizenship behaviour and job involvement. Job satisfaction was found to be statistically and practically significantly related (medium effect size) to individual work performance. Organisational commitment was found to be statistically and practically significantly inversely related to individual work performance. Organisational citizenship behaviour was found to be a significant predictor of individual work performance