Melinde Coetzee

University of South Africa | unisa · Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology

Orientation: Completing an internship is a requirement for master’s students in Industrial and Organisational Psychology (IOP) to obtain professional registration with the Health Professions Council of South Africa. Students seem to experience a diverse range of factors enabling and thwarting them in their quest to complete their internship and gai...

The aim of the study was to explore the perceived effectiveness of the professional IOP master’s coursework degree and internship programme in qualifying intern psychologists as employable IOPs. The present research builds on previous research by Coetzee, Oosthuizen and Van Niekerk (2022) which explored IOP intern students’ views on their professio...

Despite the growing research on the usefulness and validity of the four-factor Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS), empirical evidence for its relevance to Black African young emerging adults seems non-existent. The study's objective was to assess the relevance of the original WLEIS factor structure for a sample (N = 365) of South Afr...

In the current fast-paced digital work environment, it has become crucial for individuals to cultivate a deep understanding of the constantly changing nature of the job market. With jobs and career paths becoming increasingly indistinct and unpredictable, developing awareness of the digital work world is more important than ever. This research empi...

Orientation: The general goal of the professional industrial and organisational psychology (IOP) master’s coursework and internship programmes is to enable the qualifying student to contribute to organisational strategic and operational human resource practices and people behavioural dynamics, assessment, and intervention design. Research purpose:...

Orientation: The way people view and experience their work and workplaces is fundamental to the extent to which employees find meaning in work. Research that examines individuals’ views about the more turbulent and disruptive technology-enhanced work world seems to be scant.Research purpose: The present study sheds light on the extent to which indi...

Introduction This study examines grit as psychological mindsets that explain the link between self-regulatory employability attributes and perceived employability competency expectations in a sample of South African adults (N = 308). Methods A quantitative, cross-sectional research design approach was used to collect primary data. Results Results...

Background: Empirical research on career-adaptive attributes that elucidate the dynamic interplay between resources of career self-reactiveness and career self-reflectiveness in career human agency theory (CHAT) is scant. Objectives: The objective of the study was to assess the simultaneous interplay between constructs of career self-reactiveness...

The present study drew from the career construction theory of career adaptation and assessed the extent to which career agility and psychological capital (as psychological states of adaptive readiness) activated employees’ career adaptability resources and fostered their career resilience and career satisfaction (as modes of career adaptedness). A...

The present study assessed the world of work awareness of a random sample of (N = 486) higher education undergraduate students from an emerging country. In addition, the study explored these students’ needs for information they need from their studies about the technology-driven world of work. The needs were evaluated in terms specific career capit...

Orientation: Employees need to develop career capital for an open-minded work world orientation in an unpredictable, rapidly evolving digital-era work world in which jobs and occupational pathways have become blurred and uncertain.Research purpose: This research empirically examined the extent to which distance learning employees’ career mindsets a...

Background: Schein’s career orientations inventory (COI) is known to help undergraduate emerging adults develop deeper insight into the master career values that drive study and career choices. Objectives: The study’s objective was to assess the inner career orientations of young emerging adults in a university of technology setting. Method: The...

This research empirically examined the extent to which university students’ perceptions about their readiness for the digital-era work world predict their sense of employability competency. Data were collected from 486 undergraduate students of a comprehensive South African distance learning higher education institution. Regression analysis and str...

Orientation: Internships are a practical way for students to operationalise their professional purpose, acquire key occupation-related skills and practise their professional capability in real-world work settings. Research purpose: This study explored industrial and organisational psychology (IOP) interns’ views of their professional purpose and t...

Employee turnover and talent retention are both key concerns for higher education institutions because they are losing highly qualified staff members to the private sector and other higher education institutions that offer better rewards and benefits. This study explored the mediating effect of perceptions of organisational justice and trust relati...

Orientation: High turnover rates have negative repercussions for organisations, such as increases in costs related to the orientation, hiring and training of new employees. Insight into the factors that contribute to employees’ retention therefore remains a critical concern for organisations. Research purpose: The objective of this study was to ga...

Orientation: The transformation of the technology-enabled workplace has a significant impact on the future professional roles, services and capabilities of both the human resource professional (HRP) and industrial/organisational psychologist (IOP). Research purpose: The present study aimed to identify the intersecting professional personas and cap...

The present study had two objectives. The first objective was to assess the structural validity of the Psychological Career Resources Inventory – Short Form (PCRI-SF) and measurement equivalence across ethnic (white and black) and gender groups in the South African work setting. The second objective was to assess whether the PCRI-SF predicts indivi...

We aimed to explore the factor structure of the Psychological Contract Inputs-Outcomes Inventory (PCIOI) as a potential reliable measure for assessing the psychological contract content elements of employees with a digital mindset. Employees (n = 293, mean age = 38.58 years, SD = 9.34 years) in the digital-oriented services industry in South Africa...

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the landscape of working conditions world-wide, fast tracking the reality of the digital-driven workplace. Concepts such as remote working, working-from-home and hybrid working models are now considered as the “new normal.” Employes are expected to advance, flourish and survive in this digitally connected landscape...

Background: There is limited empirical research on the role of individuals’ career orientations, digital-era world of work awareness and career agility mindset in purposive career exploration. Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess the extent to which career orientations and awareness of the digital-era world of work contribute to a...

Orientation: The nature of the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s technology-driven work and business profoundly alters the foundational assumptions upon which industrial/organisational (I/O) psychologists in future will base their understanding of their professional roles in the modern workplace. Research purpose: The objective of the study was to ga...

The present study drew from modern person-environment’s needs-supply fit theory and assessed the extent to which career embeddedness acted as a moderator in the link between individuals’ career agility and their perceptions of the value-oriented psychological contract. A sample of ( N = 293; mean age = 38.58 years) employees in the human resources...

Orientation: In times of rapid change, organisations have a dire need for workers who remain psychologically attached and committed to their work for optimal sustainable organisational performance and survival. Research purpose: The aim of the study was to explore the construct validity of the Career Embeddedness Scale (CES) as predictor of indivi...

Background: There is limited empirical research on the construct of career agility and the relevance of dual career agility types in the technological-driven workplace. Objective: This study aimed to adopt a person-centred approach in assessing the link between dual career agility types and individuals’ psychological states of career wellbeing and...

Background: The new normal working context, characterised by fast changes, rapid upskilling, adoption of technology, and remote working, requires employees to remain psychologically attached to their organisations. More insight is needed regarding how career navigation (as an attribute of career agility) and career well-being attributes explain the...

Organisational success, to a large extent, depends on the quality of people employed. The race for talented personnel or workers is becoming increasingly more competitive amidst technological advances and employers’ accessibility to talented people across the globe. Effective recruitment and selection processes that are sufficiently advanced and ba...

Background: There is limited empirical research on the construct and measurement of career well-being. Individuals’ career well-being is of great relevance in counteracting the unsettling effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and the concomitant shift into increasing remote and digital means of working. Objective: The aim of...

The study assessed the construct validity of the Career Agility Scale (CAS) in a sample of financial, legal, and human resources services employees. The participants were 290 employees (female = 46%, black = 63%; mean age = 38.58 years, SD = 9.34 years) from South Africa (70%), Zimbabwe (15 %), and elsewhere (United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, I...

This chapter concludes the book volume by providing a synopsis of the key contributions and recommendations for agile coping research and practice highlighted in each chapter. The chapter sets a future research agenda for agile research and measurement.

This chapter presents an introductory overview of the outline of the book volume. The chapter provides an overview of classical and modern-day conceptualisations of the agile coping. The chapter will propose a new digital era relevant conceptualisation of the construct. The chapter will provide an outline of the core themes and focus areas of the v...

The digital era brings new career challenges and possibilities that put strain on individuals’ adaptive career capabilities. The modern-day career fosters new cognitive thinking and emotional states that elicit either negative or positive coping responses from individuals. This chapter explores the constructs of career wellbeing and career agility...

The chapter brings together the miscellaneous issues for research and practice highlighted in the various chapters in this book volume. As editors of this book volume, we add to the valuable insights and suggestions provided by the various authors by summarising the core themes that emerged in the chapters. This chapter serves as a synopsis of the...

This chapter presents an introductory overview of the outline of the book volume. The chapter makes a case for the multi-level contextual nature of the digital era psychological contract that needs to be considered in future empirical-practice work. The reader is urged to contemplate this argument in the light of the cutting-edge insightful narrati...

The objective of the chapter is to explore the extent to which career values contribute to better understand the employee–employer obligations content of the modern psychological contract. The chapter further aims to critically review the implications of the digital era work mindsets for value-oriented psychological contract practices. The review o...

This book introduces the psychological contract as a multi-level contextual construct and closes some of the knowledge gaps on the nature of the digital era psychological contract. The digital era psychological contract gives rise to a new type of employer-employee relationship manifesting at the nexus between people and technology in a post-COVID-...

This volume outlines emerging issues for research and practice related to agile coping dynamics in the digital era. Chapters in this book report on current research on the key constructs and processes underlying coping dynamics in multi-disciplinary domains and across the life-span. Chapters compare current research trends in terms of future potent...

Retaining employees is a major concern for higher education institutions which are constantly on the lookout for new and innovative ways of retaining knowledge workers. Previous research has highlighted compensation, training and development opportunities, supervisor support, and career opportunities as important retention factors, especially in th...

Orientation: It is not clear from research whether the dualistic model holds true across binary ethnic and gender groups in the South African organisational context. Research purpose: The present research aimed to test the validity and reliability of the two-factor Passion Scale and to assess for measurement invariance of the two-factor scale acro...

Orientation: The process of personnel selection is essential for organisations because it ensures that only those candidates who are likely to contribute to the economic value of an organisation are chosen to fill job vacancies.Research purpose: This research sought to explore cognitive intelligence (CI), ability emotional intelligence (ability EI)...

Individuals’ satisfaction with their career development remains an important research theme. Little is known about the extent to which individuals’ cognitive evaluations of organisational context conditions are simultaneously influenced by their affective responses to, and mindsets about such conditions. The study explored the reciprocal correspond...

Background: The fast-changing Industry 4.0 employment conditions require employees to be highly adaptable and resilient in their career self-management. More insight is needed regarding the manner in which facets of career agility (as indicators of adaptive readiness) explain the activation of career adaptability (as an indicator of self-regulated...

This study explored employee psychological resources as explanatory mechanisms of their adaptive career concerns. Participants were 315 predominantly black (39%) and female (70%) working adults (mean age = 37 years; SD = 9.77 years) employed in the South African services industry. Participants completed the Psychological Career Resources Inventory...

This study explored the explanatory power of psychological dispositions of agency (i.e. employability attributes and organisational commitment) in relation to employees’ satisfaction with organisational retention practices. Participants were a convenience sample of employees from a higher education academic institution in South Africa (N = 311; fem...

This article is intended to provide an overview of the publication themes of the 45th edition of the SA Journal of Industrial Psychology (SAJIP) (2019). Guidelines and suggestions for improving future editorial matters are also provided.

Women’s career development is seen to be complex, and more research is needed to gain more knowledge about the psychosocial factors that influence the career satisfaction of professional women. The current research explored the interplay between career adaptability and psychosocial career preoccupations to explain the variance in levels of career s...

Women’s career development is seen to be complex, and more research is needed to gain more knowledge about the psychosocial factors that influence the career satisfaction of professional women. The current research explored the interplay between career adaptability and psychosocial career preoccupations to explain the variance in levels of career s...

Background: Little is known about when (under which mindset conditions) graduate workers’ self-confidence in gaining employment increases. Objective: The current study explored the interaction effects between employers’ importance attached to graduate workers’ graduateness and employability qualities, and graduate workers’ mindsets of marketabilit...

“Future-fit career wellbeing is about building a future narrative that articulates a vision of the future work self in relation to historical versus shifting circumstances and the opportunities and professional options perceived by the individual. Opportunities and options are generated by the individual as a professional intrapreneurial evolving s...

Future-proofing individuals for sustainable and meaningful careers amid the challenges and demands posed by Industry 4.0 , calls for a critical review of enabling career self-management capabilities. The objective of the chapter is to offer an analytical assessment of the role of psychosocial career capabilities in individuals’ self-directed career...

The introductory chapter provides a brief synopsis of the core intent of the book. The chapter positions human thriving in the digital workplace context and provides an overview of the book outline and the interlink between the chapters. The five sections of the book are presented as co-evolving sections that intersect to facilitate human thriving...

Psychological safety is explored as a key mechanism enabling thriving in workplaces that are becoming increasingly digital. The objective of the chapter is to present tentative propositions about how an organisational climate of psychological safety supports human thriving in technologically evolving work contexts. The debate offered in the chapter...

The present chapter extends the positive psychology literature by positioning the concept of employability as a self-regulatory positive psychological construct that helps explain the agency-side (self-regulation) of individuals in navigating their career management within specific contexts. The chapter elaborates on positive psychological employab...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the association of harmonious work passion with career satisfaction, while probing the mediating role of employees’ psychological career resources and career preoccupations as important psychosocial career mechanisms in this association. Design/methodology/approach This paper is a cross-sectional q...

The study examines employability attributes as psychological mechanisms that explain the link between the career adaptation concerns and self-perceived employability of a sample of professionally qualified knowledge workers (N = 404). A cross-sectional survey was used to collect primary data. Results of a mediation analysis by means of structural e...

The study examined the role psychosocial resources play in enhancing perceptions of support and career satisfaction among professional women. The participants were a purposive sample of 606 professional women from South Africa (white = 61.8%, black = 19.9%, Indian = 11.1%, and coloured = 6.6%; mean age = 35.41 years, SD = 8.39 years). The participa...

Flourishing in the workplace can bring about various positive outcomes for individual and organizational well-being. This study explored the interactional effect of workplace bullying on the relationship between job demands–resources and flourishing. A convenience sample of 1102 employees was selected, and these employees completed an online survey...

Managers and human resource practitioners concerned about retaining valuable staff members need to recognise how people’s psychological career resources relate to their perceptions of job embeddedness in the organisation. The aim of the study was to determine whether employees’ psychological career resources (as measured by the Psychological Ca...

Academic staff recruitment and retention remain a challenge in South Africa and internationally. Most academics at South African universities are ageing, with fewer younger people entering academia. The objectives of the study were to determine empirically whether job embeddedness and organisational commitment significantly predict voluntary turnov...

Managers and human resource practitioners concerned about retaining valuable staff members need to recognise how people’s psychological career resources relate to their perceptions of job embeddedness in the organisation. The aim of the study was to determine whether employees’ psychological career resources (as measured by the Psychological Ca...

Academic staff recruitment and retention remain a challenge in South Africa and internationally. Most academics at South African universities are ageing, with fewer younger people entering academia. The objectives of the study were to determine empirically whether job embeddedness and organisational commitment significantly predict voluntary turnov...

The study explored the link between the career anchors, organisational commitment and turnover intention of a sample of individuals employed in the South African retail sector. A non-probability purposive sample (N = 343) of employees from an organisation in the South African retail sector was utilised. The participants were represented by predomin...

The study explored the link between the career anchors, organisational commitment and turnover intention of a sample of individuals employed in the South African retail sector. A non-probability purposive sample (N = 343) of employees from an organisation in the South African retail sector was utilised. The participants were represented by predomin...

Research on surface-level diversity pertaining to differences among gender, age, race and tenure groups regarding their psychological work immersion has been limited in the South African organisational context. The present study explored whether gender, age, race and tenure groups differ significantly in terms of their perceptions of organisational...

Orientation: Employees’ psychological attachment to their organisation remains an important topic of inquiry for organisations concerned about improving their talent management practices for the purpose of retaining valuable human capital. Research purpose: The aim of the study was to explore the constructs of job-embedded sacrifice, workplace fri...

Companies striving to retain their competitive edge in a highly turbulent business environment are redirecting their performance and career management systems to develop and retain their talent pipeline. The study examines the mediating effect of general self-esteem on the link between the career self-management and career resilience of a non-proba...

This edited volume focuses on innovative solutions to the debate on human thriving in the fast emerging technology-driven cyber-physical work context, also called Industry 4.0. The volume asks the important question: How can people remain relevant and thrive in workplaces that are increasingly virtual, technology-driven, and imbued with artificial...

This volume offers a new conceptualization of career wellbeing by viewing the construct as an individual’s long-term contentment with their career outcomes, career achievements, career changes and their sustainable employability amidst the complexities of the contemporary and emerging future digital-driven work environment. In support of this view...

This chapter explores the role of a broad array of wellbeing dispositional attributes (i.e. self-esteem, emotional intelligence, hardiness, work engagement and flourishing) in the retention context and evaluates the relationship dynamics between these attributes and employees’ perceptions of workplace bullying and turnover intention. Although workp...

Tshepo Matjie* and Melinde Coetzee Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, University of South Africa, CITY, South Africa *Corresponding author email: matjima@unisa.ac.za The study explored the socio-ecological (i .e . gender and geographical location) influences on the career orientations of emerging adults . The participants comp...

The complexity of modern careers requires personal agency in managing career development and employability capital as personal resources for career success. Individuals' employability capital also serves as a valuable resource for the sustainable performance of organizations. Individuals' ability to proactively engage in career self-management beha...

The study explored the socio-ecological (i.e. gender and geographical location) influences on the career orientations of emerging adults. The participants comprised a convenience sample of 159 black African South African university students (57% rural, 43% urban; 63% females, 37% males; mean age = 19.0, SD = 2.24). The emerging adults completed a c...

The study extends contemporary research on adaptive career behaviour by exploring the link between three under-researched psychological career-related attributes (career values, career enablers and career harmonisers) that may potentially serve as mechanisms for enhancing individuals’ self-efficacious career adaptability (career confidence). Partic...

Orientation: The demand for retaining top talent in the highly competitive and turbulent working environment has made retention research relevant and important. A central question in retention research revolves around the psychological factors that drive employees to remain at an organisation. Research purpose: This research explores the mediating...

This book offers a contemporary review of talent retention from the viewpoint of human resource management and industrial/organisational psychology. With a practical and relevant perspective it enriches critical knowledge and insight in the psychology of talent retention. It offers interpretation of difficult factors facing organisations such as th...

The present study explored positive coping behaviour and age interaction effects on workers’ psycho-social career preoccupations. Participants were workers employed within a chemical industry in South Africa (n = 525). The sample was represented by younger (21–34 years, n = 257) and older (35–55 years, n = 268) workers (male = 52%, black = 51%). Th...

Orientation: The global skills crisis coupled with the aging workforce, rapid technological advances and changing nature of work have infringed various challenges upon organisations and employees. Media organisations in particular are affected by these trends, with retention further at risk because of the specialised and scarce skills sought and th...

The capacity to uphold one’s employability in today’s more volatile and uncertain employment climate has become a fundamental requirement for surviving in the contemporary workplace. This chapter explores the notion of employability capacities as important psycho-social resources supporting graduates’ career management and development in the contem...

Orientation: Positive coping strengths are important personal resources in helping employees deal constructively with the complex interaction between the individual and the environment. Research purpose: The present study examined the usefulness and validity of the factor structure of the positive coping behavioural inventory (PCBI) with the view t...

ORIENTATION: The central theme of this study attends to the role of secondary education in relation to two broad categories of specific aptitudes (psychomotor and spatial abilities). Utilising type of secondary education (incorporating subject choice) could be a crucial selection mechanism for high-volume, entry-level technical positions. RESEARCH...

Employees’ turnover intentions may entail expensive consequences for companies. The study examined the mediating effect of work engagement in the relationship between workplace bullying and turnover intention. Using a cross-sectional sample of 373 employees, structural equation modeling and mediation analysis showed that perceptions of work- and pe...

The study explored whether the positive links between individuals’ psychosocial career attributes and career adaptability resources empirically represent the characteristics associated with proactive career self-management behaviour. A cross-sectional convenience sample of Black and White (N = 248) working adults participated in the study. The redu...

The study investigated the work-role of psychosocial flourishing attributes in countering workplace bullying behaviour and turnover intention Data on participants’ perceptions of workplace bullying behaviour, turnover intentions, and psychosocial flourishing were collected from n = 373 employees in various South African organisations Simple mediati...

Orientation: South Africa has faced a number of discriminatory practices in the past. Most of these practices are still present today. Although a considerate amount of attention has been given to discrimination based on gender, race and religion, limited emphasis has been placed on discrimination based on disability, specifically within the workpla...

This study explored whether young emerging adults’ psychological career resources identity predicted their orientation to life. The participants were a random sample of 400 predominantly full-time undergraduate students from four tertiary institutions in Nigeria ( 47% = female are range 18 to 30 years). They completed psychological career resources...

Talent retention is of particular concern in the information technology (IT) sector owing to globalisation, the skills shortage and rapidly advancing technology. Employee turnover has signifi cant costs and negative consequences for organisations. The objective of this study was to explore the association between employees’ experiences of work-life...

Change-oriented employee behaviour that promotes organisational innovation has become important due to organisational success in the globalised competitive marketplace being contingent on innovative employee ideas and new technology that meet changing customer expectations. Apart from cognitive receptivity to technological advances and innovation,...

Proactive change-oriented employee behaviour that facilitates adaptation to technological advances and promotes organisational innovation has become important for organisational and individual success in the globalised knowledge-based economy. These trends have led to new conceptualisations of vocational behaviour that increasingly focus on the evo...

This study investigated the moderating role of self-esteem on young emerging adults’ in their school-to-work transition phase of graduateness skills and career adaptability. A non-probability convenience sample (n=332) of undergraduate black (98.5%) and female (62%) young emerging adults (18–29 years) at a Further Education and Training (FET) colle...