Pieter Schaap

A training programme based on the principles of social constructivism and focused on developing people for the future world of work : an evaluation

Abstract Human resources development needs to take cognizance of the unique challenges that the workplace of the future is posing to individuals, so that young people can be prepared effectively for the workplace. The objective of this study was to evaluate a training programme based on the principles of social constructivism and focused on developing people for the workplace of the future. A non-equivalent groups design with pre- and post-measurement was used to evaluate the programme. The experimental group consisted of thirty-six individuals and the control group consisted of twenty individuals. The training programme contributed to a significant increase in the creativity, adaptability and self-acceptance of the experimental group (compared to that of the control group). These characteristics will be necessary to succeed in the workplace in future. The training programme thus made a valuable contribution to the development of the experimental group, preparing them for the workplace of the future.

The Development of a Measure to Assess Perceptions of the Advanced Aircraft Training Climate

Training attitudes and airline pilots’ specific learning experiences are antecedents, which affect human behavior on the flight deck in various ways. This article reports on the development and psychometric evaluation of a scale to assess aviators’ perceptions of the training environment associated with technologically complex advanced aircraft. A sample of 229 airline pilots provided data to explore the latent structure of the hypothesized research construct. Principal axis factor analysis produced a 3-factor model consisting of organizational professionalism, intrinsic motivation, and individual control of training outcomes, with highly acceptable Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients.

Measurement Equivalence of the South African Psychological Ownership Questionnaire for Diverse South African Cultural Groups

This study determined the measurement equivalence of the South African Psychological Ownership Questionnaire (SAPOS) for black and white South African employees. Participants were a non-probability sample of 645 professional level employees from both the private and the public sector (59.4% were females, 35.2% were black and 52% were over the age of 40. Over 90% of the participants have college education qualifications and nearly 41.7% had been working in their current organisations for a period of less than 5 years). Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling were used to analyse the data. The results indicated that factor variances appeared to be equal for the two groups although differences existed in factor loadings and covariances.

Categories of Human Risk Factors Which Impact on the Psychological Fitness of Construction Workers: A Review of the Evidence

This systematic review sought to identify and examine the evidence on human factors which impact on the psychological fitness of construction workers. Studies were reviewed spanning the period from 1966 to 2012. Database searches included 135 ScienceDirect and EBSCOHost sources, yielding 73 studies for the final analytical review. Four categories appear to explain occupational and safety health in construction workers: knowledge and experience, perceptions and mind-sets, attitudes and motivations, and personality characteristics. Occupational health and safety risk factor within the categories were investigated and conceptualised in terms of its impact on the safety behaviour of workers.