Browsing by Subject "management studies"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Examining the predictors of co-worker attitude towards support for breastfeeding at work in clothing factories in Cape Town
    (2020) Petersen, Rushda; Jaga, Ameeta
    Return to work is a recurring reason for premature weaning of breastfeeding infants among low-income South African individuals. Yet, breastfeeding research has largely been examined from the health perspective, leaving a gap in the literature regarding research on breastfeeding as a workplace issue. Workplace support is needed to allow the combination of breastfeeding and work to become feasible for women returning to work. Informal support, particularly co-worker support, may be particularly important since formal workplace support are underutilised in low-income settings. This study seeks to provide insight into the factors which contribute to co-worker support for breastfeeding at work in a low-income factory setting, in Cape Town, South Africa. This study examined the relationships between coworkers' attitude towards support for breastfeeding at work and three possible predictors, (1) their perceptions of family supportive supervisor behaviours (FSSB) in the factory, (2) their personal breastfeeding experience and (3) their perceptions of fairness for breastfeeding at work. Furthermore, parental status was examined as a moderator on the relationship between co-workers' perceptions of fairness for breastfeeding at work and their attitude towards support for breastfeeding at work. Blue-collar workers in Cape Town clothing factories responded to the self-report questionnaire (N = 259). The study results revealed that FSSB, personal breastfeeding experience in the community (but not as a mother or in the factory), and perceptions of fairness for breastfeeding at work predicted positive attitude towards support for breastfeeding at work. Parental status did not moderate the relationship between perception of fairness for breastfeeding at work and co-worker attitude towards support for breastfeeding at work. Implications for practice and research are presented.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Interviewer effects in quantitative surveys using a door-to-door approach
    (2021) Soeker, Naadir; Meyer, Ines
    Interviewers are a principal source of error in quantitative surveys. While surveys are often self-administered (e.g. in online surveys), it is often required to administer these face-to- face. This is the case, for example, in census surveys in low-income areas where there is little internet penetration, like that of the quality-of-life surveys presently being conducted in multiple countries through a residential door-to-door approach (Carr et al., 2018). In such situations, the social interaction between the interviewer conducting the survey and the interviewee is likely to introduce bias into the survey data collected. Interviewer effects (IE) can influence both item non-response and answer quality, i.e., participants not providing the true answer (Harling, et al., 2019). In an attempt to gain more representative data, this study conducted an exploratory analysis on the possible antecedents and consequences of interviewer effects using the Living Wage survey presently being conducted in South Africa, as the study context. To this end, I examine the systematic biasing effects associated with deploying the same group interviewers (n = 10), of the same ethnicity, age, and of equal gender distribution across five sampling areas in Cape Town in a quasi-experimental design (n = 282). This study highlighted that each interviewer is associated with a unique set of systematic bias that varies dependent on the survey item type. Sensitive items requiring respondents to disclose personal information were the most prone to bias, followed by interviewer-referencing and attitudinal items sequentially. Furthermore, this study found that gender differences in the interview had a marginal influence on the attitudes respondents are willing to share. I hope to contribute to an understanding and critical consideration of the antecedents and consequences of deploying human interviewers for collecting quantitative surveys, especially in a context where ethnic, gender and political differences are loaded in social interactions and are likely to contribute to respondents obscuring their responses.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    The Impact of title sponsorship on customer-based brand equity: an evaluation of seasonal soccer tournaments in South Africa
    (2019) Sibiya, Mxolisi; Pillay, Pragasen
    Sports sponsorship has become an integral brand building tool as brands wrangle to be differentiated and to create loyal customers. Sponsorship is seen as impactful as it brings brands closer to consumers through a passion point and by borrowing equity of the sponsored property. As the sponsorship market continues to grow, brands are diversifying into title sponsorship of short-term tournaments to gain a competitive edge. The mere association by means of name sharing as title sponsors is not strong enough to alter what consumers see, hear, feel, and think of the brand. Thus, brands have to employ brand experiences that are engaging, enjoyable, and memorable enough to deliver lasting impact on consumers in terms of what consumers see, hear, feel, and think. These modules together form customer-based brand equity (CBBE), the potential commercial value that a brand can derive based on what resides in the mind of consumers. Nonetheless, there is currently no scholarly investigation that examines the impact that brand experiences has on CBBE. The goal of this research is to unpack the proliferation of title sponsorship in short-term tournaments and explore if CBBE is impacted by employing brand experiences during short-term tournaments. The thesis aims to establish an academic foundation to strengthen the interpretation of the relationship between sponsorship of short-term tournaments and the experiences used to impact CBBE. To achieve this objective, the study presents an adapted framework for interpretation as no scholarly model currently exists. The relationship interpretation is achieved through thorough investigation of existing literature that integrates short-term tournament title sponsorship, brand experiences, and CBBE. Furthermore, custodians of brands that title sponsor short-term tournaments were the focal population of the study to understand their strategic imperatives that inform the relationship under study as research reveals that more title sponsors are integrating brand experiences into their sponsorships.