Papers by Anthony Isabirye
THE REFLECTIVE JOURNAL AS A PEDAGOGIC AND ASSESSMENT TOOL IN HIGHER EDUCATION, 2024
This qualitative study analyzed 14 purposely chosen reflective journals whose authors were code-n... more This qualitative study analyzed 14 purposely chosen reflective journals whose authors were code-named P1 to P14, to examine how reflective journaling stimulates higher-order thinking among students, explores how reflective journals can influence students' personal and professional growth, and how feedback from students' reflective journals can inform curriculum improvement and content delivery by the lecturer. Three major questions guided the study: How do reflective journals stimulate higher-order thinking skills? How do reflective journals influence students' personal and professional growth? And how useful is feedback from students' reflective journals regarding informing curriculum improvement and content delivery? The findings confirmed that reflective journaling enhances highorder thinking, contributes to personal and professional growth, and could guide curriculum development and content delivery. However, to achieve these benefits, students must be given clear instructions with appropriate prompts, as well as adequate time and space to engage in reflective writing. Based on the findings, recommendations were made, and the limitations of the study and areas for future research were also suggested.
Leadership power bases’ influences on quality of work life and intention to stay among employees at a selected retail outlet, 2024
Leadership power bases influence on quality of work-life and intention to stay among retailing em... more Leadership power bases influence on quality of work-life and intention to stay among retailing employees.
Training and development impact on job satisfaction, loyalty and retention among academics, 2024
Introductory background Although training and development are such an essential aspect of higher ... more Introductory background Although training and development are such an essential aspect of higher education, little is known about its impact on academics' teaching practices. When considering the impact training and development has on academics, it must be meaningful to take academics' job satisfaction, loyalty and retention into account. As Machado-Taylor (2014) suggests, academics must be efficient and pleased when providing teaching and conducting research and when they help both students and the institutions (Moloantoa, 2015). For this reason, it is critical that higher education institutions (HEIs) strive to keep satisfied academics to realise effective performance. This study was created to determine the impact of training and development on job satisfaction, loyalty and retention among academics at a university of technology in light of the aforementioned observation. This study makes the case that academics who are content with their work perform better when it comes to carrying out their responsibilities (Tizikara & Mugizi, 2017). Indeed, Moloantoa and Dorasamy (2017) note that one element required to foster inspiration, responsibility and lower staff turnover is job satisfaction. On the other hand, institutions are likely to experience greater employee turnover and unanticipated costs associated with hiring and training new personnel in situations where employees, in this case academics, are not satisfied (Theron et al., 2014). Orientation: Extreme competition among institutions of higher learning was one of the difficulties that universities of technology (UoTs) had to overcome in order to enter the higher education system. This study examined the influence of training and development on job satisfaction, loyalty and retention among academic staff at a selected university of technology. Research purpose: The study investigated how training and development impact job satisfaction, loyalty and retention among academics. Motivation for the study: The competitive nature of the academic sector inspired universities to strive to attract and retain talented faculty members. Training and development programmes are considered potential tools to enhance job satisfaction, loyalty and retention, but empirical evidence is needed to support this relationship. Research approach/design and method: This study used a quantitative research methodology with a non-probability convenience sample (n = 270) of academics within the selected university utilising self-administered structured questionnaires to collect data. Main findings: The regression analysis revealed positive significant predictive relationships between training and development programmes and job satisfaction, loyalty and retention among academic staff. Practical/managerial implications: Findings imply that universities should prioritise the development of tailored training initiatives that address the specific needs and aspirations of their academic staff. Training interventions can foster a positive work environment and enhance staff members' commitment and long-term engagement, ultimately improving the overall quality and reputation of the institution. Contribution/value-add: The study provided evidence-based insights to inform policies related to training and development programmes for both academics and institutions of higher education administrators.
Challenges faced by students in an e-Learning setting at a university of technology in South Africa, 2024
ABSTRACT
This study explores the challenges encountered by students in an e-learning setting at a... more ABSTRACT
This study explores the challenges encountered by students in an e-learning setting at a University of Technology in South Africa. The study employed qualitative research methods, utilizing a semi-structured interviews as the primary tool for data collection. Ten students, identified as S1 to S10, formed a purposeful sample and participated in the research. The collected data was thematically analyzed to identify and understand the challenges faced by these students. The analysis revealed four major themes: limited access to reliable internet connections, engagement and motivational challenges, inadequate institutional support, and socio-economic challenges. Based on the findings, the main conclusions of the study suggest that students in the e-learning setting face multiple challenges that hinder their productive learning experience. To address these challenges, recommendations are made to improve internet infrastructure, enhance student engagement and motivation, provide stronger institutional support, and alleviate socio-economic obstacles. It is hoped that these findings and recommendations will contribute to the design and implementation of more effective e-learning strategies at the University of Technology and beyond.
Key Words: University of Technology, eLearning, Challenges, Technology,
Exploring Academics’ Performance Management Experiences at a University of Technology in South Africa, 2023
This study was designed to explore the academics' experiences of the performance management syste... more This study was designed to explore the academics' experiences of the performance management system (PMS) at a university and to understand which of their performances enhanced the achievement of the university's strategic goals. Furthermore, the study sought to establish the support required by the academics to achieve the performance as captured in their key performance indicators (KPIs) within the faculty. A qualitative research design was adopted using semi-structured, in-depth, individual interviews to collect data from 18 academics, coded L1 to L18. Interview questions revolved around the participants' four KPIs, namely quality teaching and learning, research productivity, community engagement and participation in management activities. Through content data analysis, participants' experiences were highlighted. It was revealed that PM at the institution revolved around predetermined KPIs that were given to the academics in advance before the exercise. The four KPIs later came out as the key PM practises applied by the university to enhance the achievement of its strategic goals. It was also possible to establish the participants' performance, the support given by the university and the gap between the participants' performance and the institution's expectations, as captured in the KPIs. It emerged that whilst the participants had the needed competencies to ensure quality teaching and learning, they also required, among others, a mechanism to assess the impact of teaching on the students' performance. It further emerged that little was done in terms of research productivity; and that participants required enormous support from the university, and rewards to enable them to publish and supervise. Regarding community engagement and participation in administrative activities, participants indicated that it was more challenging due to pressing teaching loads. Based on the findings, recommendations to enhance all the identified KPIs were proposed.
Enhancing Networking skills for Professional success: Strategies and Tactics, 2024
This theoretical article aims to explore and discuss various strategies and tactics that can be e... more This theoretical article aims to explore and discuss various strategies and tactics that can be employed to enhance networking skills for professional success. Networking has become an essential skill in today's competitive professional landscape, and individuals who excel in this area often have increased opportunities for career advancement, collaboration, and personal growth. This article adopts a literature review approach to examine and analyse existing research and theories on networking skills. By synthesising information from diverse sources, this article presents a comprehensive overview of strategies and tactics professionals can employ to enhance their networking abilities. Key findings highlight the importance of building and maintaining a strong network, effective communication techniques, leveraging technology and social media, developing personal branding, and cultivating strategic relationships. The implications of this article align with achieving professional success through enhanced networking skills. The identification and understanding of various strategies and tactics provided here allow professionals to expand their network and make meaningful connections, establish a positive reputation, and open doors to new opportunities. Additionally, the insights presented in this article can assist professionals in navigating social and professional events confidently, influence others, and ultimately advance their careers. Embracing and honing these networking skills can improve collaboration, increase visibility, job satisfaction, and overall professional growth.
Enhancing Service Delivery Through Organisational Justice: The case of a local Municipality in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa., 2023
This research aims to determine, from the perspectives of municipal workers, how a local municipa... more This research aims to determine, from the perspectives of municipal workers, how a local municipality in Mpumalanga, South Africa, could enhance service delivery through organisational justice. As a concept, organisational justice refers to employees' perceptions of the fairness of organisational rules and policies, their actions and attitudes about their work, and their confidence in or mistrust of management. We contend that maintaining organisational justice may help resolve various delivery service issues. Guided by the social exchange theory (SET), municipal workers' opinions were accessed through a qualitative research design. In-depth interviews were used as data collection tools. The collected data were examined iteratively and critically. It was found that Municipal employees thought a just workplace was calm, where management distributed resources equally to all employees (distributive justice), applied policies and procedures consistently (procedural justice), provided truthful justifications for all decisions made (informational justice), and engaged in quality interpersonal interaction with all employees while putting organisational procedures into practice (interactional justice). However, processed data indicated that there was a disparity in resource distribution, a lack of transparency and participatory decision-making processes, a deficiency in information provision, and a culture of dismissiveness among municipal officials in the municipality. All these factors hindered effective service delivery.
African Journal of Inter/Multidisciplinary Studies
This study was designed to explore the academics’ experiences of the performance management syste... more This study was designed to explore the academics’ experiences of the performance management system (PMS) at a university and to understand which of their performances enhanced the achievement of the university’s strategic goals. Furthermore, the study sought to establish the support required by the academics to achieve the performance as captured in their key performance indicators (KPIs) within the faculty. A qualitative research design was adopted using semi-structured, in-depth, individual interviews to collect data from 18 academics, coded L1 to L18. Interview questions revolved around the participants’ four KPIs, namely quality teaching and learning, research productivity, community engagement and participation in management activities. Through content data analysis, participants’ experiences were highlighted. It was revealed that PM at the institution revolved around pre-determined KPIs that were given to the academics in advance before the exercise. The four KPIs later came o...
African Journal for Physical, Health Education, Recreation and Dance, 2011
This investigation was undertaken to establish soccer coaches' views and experiences with reg... more This investigation was undertaken to establish soccer coaches' views and experiences with regard to mentoring as a way of developing their skills and knowledge. The authors conducted a qualitative phenomenological study with seven purposively selected participants (coded as M1 - M7) who were involved in soccer coaching for either community teams or educational institutions. Data were collected through open ended interviews that were transcribed and then analyzed using open-axial and selective coding procedures. The results showed that all the respondents viewed mentoring as a vital learning experience (the learning experience category) that advanced their professional knowledge (advancement category). The respondents, however, indicated that for mentoring to be successfully used as a tool for professional development, there is a need for an amicable interpersonal relationship between the mentee and the mentor (interpersonal category). There is also a need for the mentor to be ac...
African Journal for Physical, Health Education, Recreation and Dance, 2013
Research on employees' psychological contracts in organisations indicates the importance of i... more Research on employees' psychological contracts in organisations indicates the importance of identifying and ensuring that such contracts are honoured. This qualitative study explored the psychological contracts of 15 amateur coaches in Southern Gauteng. Data were collected through in-depth interviews from coaches representing different sports. The interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim for content analysis through iterative and reflexive procedures. Whilst the study was designed to establish how the fulfillment or breach of the psychological contracts of the coaches influenced their commitment to their jobs, teams, employers, job satisfaction, commitment, their professional goals, values and turnover intensions, it also revealed the coaches' unwritten expectations which the employers had to meet if they were to perform effectively. The respondents expected to be developed, given autonomy to make decisions, awarded recognition and financial rewards, and suppo...
International journal of social sciences, 2019
The aim of this study is to explore concerns of 10 academics at a university in South Africa who ... more The aim of this study is to explore concerns of 10 academics at a university in South Africa who participated in an in-house professional development programme and recommend how such concerns could be addressed. Guided by the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), a qualitative, interpretive research design was adopted. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed qualitatively. The results indicated that organisers of successful staff development programmes need to inform the participants (informational concerns) about the nature of the programme and to explain the impact of the programme on individual participants (personal concerns). Participants were also concerned about how the change due to training would be managed in practice (management concerns) and the consequences of the programme on the students (consequence concerns). The study confirmed that being aware of trainees’ concerns enables programme organisers to give relevant assistance to individual t...
International journal of social sciences, 2017
Academics have a responsibility of ensuring that teaching achieves its purpose. They are entruste... more Academics have a responsibility of ensuring that teaching achieves its purpose. They are entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring students’ personal development, acquisition of critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It is important that by the end of the course the students have the capacity to solve individual and societal problems. This can only be realised if the academics’ teaching orientations support learning. However, whilst academics espouse teaching orientations that support learning, in practice they employ orientations that impede meaningful learning. This study explores the concepts of learning and teaching and links them to the espoused and actual teaching orientations of academics at a university in South Africa, explaining why academics’ espoused orientations differ from orientations in use. The study adopted an inductive research paradigm that followed a qualitative research approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews from selected ac...
This study investigated the motives and challenges experienced by professional female soccer play... more This study investigated the motives and challenges experienced by professional female soccer players in South Africa. It used a qualitative research approach in which data were collected from eleven purposively selected participants code-named R1 to R11 through in-depth interviews. During the data analysis process, participants' responses were synthesised into themes and subthemes that revealed the challenges faced by professional female soccer players as well as factors that motivated them to play. The results of the study revealed that female participation in professional soccer is influenced by factors such as supportive family and friends, available time to practice, good sports facilities, and supportive male and female relationships. However, scarcity of career opportunities, inadequate funding and time, together with negative attitudes towards women entering soccer as a male-dominated sport were major challenges that discouraged their participation. In order to attract mo...
The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if... more The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.
This paper seeks to examine the organisational justice concept of construction project organisati... more This paper seeks to examine the organisational justice concept of construction project organisations in South Africa as a matrix of ethics and integrity for improving construction productivity. The objective of the study is to investigate the constellation of expected behaviours of organisation justice in order to identify ethical and integrity behaviours that positively influence construction productivity. A descriptive research methodology was used. Data was collected through literature review and exploration and emailed questionnaires to 100 different construction operatives, who included, among others, engineers, architects, and academics in the built environment. Collected data was analysed through the normative and ratio statistical scales; identifying ethics and integrity behaviours that influenced productivity and the extent to which the identified behaviours influenced productivity in South Africa, respectively. Eleven variables that form ethics and integrity behaviours suc...
ArXiv, 2021
The first chapter is a critical review and a case study in eBusiness, with special attention to t... more The first chapter is a critical review and a case study in eBusiness, with special attention to the digital currencies resource and its possibilities. 2. chapter attempts to incorporate the UTAUT model with perceived risk theory to explore its impact on the intention to use m-government services. 3. chapter aims to assess the level of gender inclusivity in the municipal e-procurement processes in the City of Johannesburg as a case study. It uses a GAD approach. 4. chapter examines the impediments that derail the intensive uptake of eLearning programmes in a particular higher education institution. The study adopted an inductive research paradigm that followed a qualitative research strategy. Data were collected by means of one-on-one in-depth interviews from selected faculty members at a nominated institution of higher learning. 5. chapter investigated the role of KMS in enhancing the export performance of firms operating within the manufacturing sector in Zimbabwe. The study used a...
This paper examines the constraints that derail the intensive uptake of eLearning programmes in a... more This paper examines the constraints that derail the intensive uptake of eLearning programmes in a particular higher education institution. The study adopted an inductive research paradigm that followed a qualitative research strategy. Data were collected by means of one-on-one in-depth interviews from selected faculty members at a nominated institution of higher learning. Data were iteratively and reflexively analysed, leading to the emergence of four themes. Notably, the scepticism towards the implementation of transformative eLearning was ascribed to complex initiation procedures, inadequate training and support, an incoherent e-policy at the institution as well as resistance to change. In lieu of this, the paper advocates for the incremental adoption of fully-fledged eLearning strategies and policies among academic institutions as well as the effusive use of blended learning approaches. Thus, as opposed to merely enabling academic faculty to refine their teaching, eLearning strat...
Mini-dissertation (M.Ed.)--University of Johannesburg, 2005. Bibliographical references: leaves 9... more Mini-dissertation (M.Ed.)--University of Johannesburg, 2005. Bibliographical references: leaves 95- 99.
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Papers by Anthony Isabirye
This study explores the challenges encountered by students in an e-learning setting at a University of Technology in South Africa. The study employed qualitative research methods, utilizing a semi-structured interviews as the primary tool for data collection. Ten students, identified as S1 to S10, formed a purposeful sample and participated in the research. The collected data was thematically analyzed to identify and understand the challenges faced by these students. The analysis revealed four major themes: limited access to reliable internet connections, engagement and motivational challenges, inadequate institutional support, and socio-economic challenges. Based on the findings, the main conclusions of the study suggest that students in the e-learning setting face multiple challenges that hinder their productive learning experience. To address these challenges, recommendations are made to improve internet infrastructure, enhance student engagement and motivation, provide stronger institutional support, and alleviate socio-economic obstacles. It is hoped that these findings and recommendations will contribute to the design and implementation of more effective e-learning strategies at the University of Technology and beyond.
Key Words: University of Technology, eLearning, Challenges, Technology,
This study explores the challenges encountered by students in an e-learning setting at a University of Technology in South Africa. The study employed qualitative research methods, utilizing a semi-structured interviews as the primary tool for data collection. Ten students, identified as S1 to S10, formed a purposeful sample and participated in the research. The collected data was thematically analyzed to identify and understand the challenges faced by these students. The analysis revealed four major themes: limited access to reliable internet connections, engagement and motivational challenges, inadequate institutional support, and socio-economic challenges. Based on the findings, the main conclusions of the study suggest that students in the e-learning setting face multiple challenges that hinder their productive learning experience. To address these challenges, recommendations are made to improve internet infrastructure, enhance student engagement and motivation, provide stronger institutional support, and alleviate socio-economic obstacles. It is hoped that these findings and recommendations will contribute to the design and implementation of more effective e-learning strategies at the University of Technology and beyond.
Key Words: University of Technology, eLearning, Challenges, Technology,