September 2010

Celebrating Research with Chocolate and

Champagne!

Volume 4, Issue 2

Inside this issue:

Stuart McChlery at

Accounting Sci-

ences

3

Meet Pieter van der

Zwan

6

Unit strikes! 8

Prof Louw van der Walt recently attended the Academy of Management (AOM) Conference held in Montreal,

Canada. Prof Louw also had the opportunity to attend a workshop with his collaborators where a research

proposal for a new funding application was formulated.

The research team includes Prof Robert Anderson from

Canada, and collaborators from America, Ireland, Aus-

tralia, New Zealand and Brazil. The proposed project

has been titled “Creating a sustainable economy: The

place of communities at all types”. This application will

be submitted to the Canadian Research Council in

February 2011. It is anticipated that the project could

stretch over the next three years.

WorkWell Research Unit;

Faculty of Economic and

Management Sciences, North

-West University,

Potchefstroom, 2520

Tel: +27 (0)18-299-1369

Fax: +27 (0)18-299-1360

E-mail:

Jaco.Pienaar@nwu.ac.za

Web: www.workwell.co.za

F.l.t.r.: Proffs Louw vd Walt, Brian Gibson , Bob

Anderson & Leo Paul Dana

Staff from the School of Human Resource

Sciences toast their success

The School of Human Resource Sciences celebrated their research achievements

for this year on Tuesday, 31 August, by indulging in chocolates and sparkling wine

(what South Africans call “champagne”!). This was arranged by the school’s re-

search programme leader, Dr Bennie Linde, to thank the personnel for their con-

tributions in reaching the programme’s goals in publications. Bennie confirmed

that the school already had 17 publications for this year – an equivalent of 1.2

publications per academic staff member. Furthermore, he stated that five mem-

bers of the team already have three or more publications for 2010, which is per-

ceived as a very healthy distribution of productivity. Bennie joked that Eileen was,

without a doubt, the most productive academic to receive her PhD, publish three

articles and becoming a mother in one year! Proffs Karina Mostert and Jan Visage

were also thanked for their productivity in research. The dean of the Faculty of

Economic and Management Sci-

ences, Prof Elsabé Loots, and the

research director of WorkWell, Prof

Jaco Pienaar, confirmed their sup-

port of research in the school and

congratulated Eileen and the rest of

their school with their achieve-

ments, while enjoying the celebra-

tions with the school.

Exciting Prospects loom for Prof v/d Walt

On 1 September, Prof Wilma Viviers, director of

the School of Economics, ms Ermie Steenkamp,

dr Riaan Rossouw and Prof Ludo Cuyvers of the

University of Antwerp and extraordinary profes-

sor in the School of Economics presented South

Africa’s realistic export opportunities to the rest of

the world to the Department of Trade and Industry.

This presentation also included a DSM (Decision Support Model) DASHBOARD, which is an interactive visuali-

sation and instrument to communicate and easily interpret the results of the DSM.

According to Mr Riaan le Roux, the chief operations officer of TISA (Trade and Investment SA), this research

work is best practice in the world. For South Africa it is a first – because, for the first time, export opportunities

are determined in a scientific manner, and thus the decision-making in the Department of Trade and Industry is

guided and supported. This instrument will assist the government and private sector to compile a joint export

promotion plan.

The DSM DASHBOARD makes the research results of the export model available to the government, export

boards and exporters in a user-friendly manner and can thus make a great contribution to export development

in South Africa.

Other research projects which emerged from the DTI-DSM include the PhD of Sonja Grater to develop a DSM

for services. This model will identify the sub-sectors of services in which SA has realistic export opportunities

and to which markets. Noleen Sithole is assessing the implication of the formation of industrial clusters for ex-

port promotion in the North West Province for her PhD. Dr Henri Bezuidenhout is currently investigating the

reconseptualisation of the DSM-principles for foreign direct investment promotion purposes.

Research on SA export opportunities - a

‘first’ in South Africa

F.l.t.r.: Mr Victor Mathale and Mr Riaan le Roux of the DTI, Miss Noleen Sithole, Ermie Steenkamp, Proff Wilma

Viviers, Ludo Cuyvers and Dr Henri Bezuidenhout, Ms Sonja Grater and Dr Riaan

Rossouw Page 2

Volume 4, Issue 2

Several staff members from the School of Human Resource Sciences attended the Annual Conference of the

Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology of South Africa. The conference was held from 28 - 30 July

2010. The following papers were presented at the conference:

Lene Jorgensen, Retha Watson & Deon Meiring: The development of an emotion competence intervention for

the South African Police Service.

Lizelle Brink, Nadia Botma, Cara Jonker & Alewyn Nel: The emotion experiences of first line managers in a mi-

ning environment.

Ina Rothmann, Karina Mostert, Ian Rothmann Jnr.,

Jaco Pienaar, Lelani Brand-Labuschagne & Glen

Hageman: Burnout: The tree-headed monster

consuming employee health and productivity: is it

true?

Lelani Brand-Labuschagne, Karina Mostert, Ina

Rothmann, Ian Rothmann Jnr. & Jaco Pienaar:

Antecedents of work-related psychological fitness in

lower-level employees.

Ian Rothmann Jnr., Jaco Pienaar, Karina Mostert, Ina

Rothmann & Lelani Brand-Labuschagne: Managing

absenteeism: Are we getting it right?

Presentations at Annual SIOPSA Conference

On the photo, from left to right: Lizelle Brink, Marissa

de Klerk, Dr Lene Jorgensen and Mr Gerhard Rabie

The School of Accounting Sciences recently hosted an international visitor: Dr Stuart McChlery of the Glasgow

Caledonian University in Scotland, from 18 untill 23 July. Dr McChlery’s visit was primarily aimed at supporting

and promoting research efforts within the School.

He had a number of one-to-one sessions with lecturers in the School, and specifically shared ideas with staff

members who are embarking on masters and doctoral studies. During his visit, Dr McChlery also presented

lectures, focusing on "Computer-based assessment: "Case studies with simulated interaction" and “A jour-

ney into research". It is envisioned that ties with Dr McChlery will only grow in future, due to his willingness to

support research efforts within the School,

and he will also act as examiner, modera-

tor and supervisor.

The School of Accounting Sciences has also

developed their own internal research

course aimed at honours and masters stu-

dents. This one-day refresher course has

already been presented in January, May

and August of this year. The course is spe-

cifically aimed at assisting these learners in

developing high quality research proposals.

Research Visit in the School of Accounting Sciences

Volume 4, Issue 2

On the photo, third from right, recent visitor to the School for Accounting Sciences Dr Stuart

McChlery

Page 3

Noleen Sithole from the School of Economics Page 4

Volume 4, Issue 2 Staff member attends top-notch training

Noleen Sithole attended the Thirteenth Annual Conference on Global Eco-

nomic Analysis that was held in Penang, Malaysia from 3 to 11 June 2010. She

presented a paper on the export potential of South African edible nuts.

On 2 July, Prof Andrea Saayman attended the QATEM-workshop in Perpignan,

France, where she delivered a paper with Prof Melville Saayman and Dr Riaan

Rossouw. The paper was titled: Does conservation make sense to local com-

munities?

Prof Andrea Saayman, together with Prof Melville Saayman, also delivered a

paper on the determinants of spending at the World Leisure Congress in

ChunCheon, South Korea. The conference was held on 29 August - 3 Septem-

ber.

Research activities from the School of Economics

Recently, one of our colleagues at the School for Human Resource Management, Eileen Koekemoer, attended

a one-week programme on research methodology. This programme was initiated by SANPAD and developed

for academic personnel enrolled for their PhD studies. Eileen was selected for the advanced research capacity

initiative programme (ARCI) in 2009 and attended the one-week course in Durban 25-31 July 2010. Only

eight students from universities in SA were selected for the programme. These students were from various

fields of research, such as mathematics, arts and drama, political studies and psychology and from various uni-

versities such as NWU Mafikeng Campus, University of Pretoria, University of Cape Town and the University

of KwaZulu-Natal. The goal of the week was to give feedback and help students with their PhD studies. Al-

though the programme was for students still working on their studies, Eileen submitted her PhD thesis in June

this year, and attended

the programme for de-

velopmental reasons

and to gain more

knowledge on research

methodology. Eileen’s

PhD thesis was success-

fully accepted and she

will graduate in Sep-

tember 2010. Three

articles from her thesis

were also accepted for

publication later this

year in the South Afri-

On the photo appears the PhD candidates from the various universities, with Eileen Koekemoer fourth from left,

at the back