The department offers research expertise and post graduate supervision in the Research Focus Areas (RFA's) listed below. Click on the title of the RFA to open a document with detailed information on its scope and methodological focus for each RFA.
The research scope of this RFA consists of employee health and well-being, work engagement, positive organisational behaviour, open distance learning environment, adult learner self-directedness, and adult learning. More information is available in the RFA document.
Employment relations is a field of study, of multidiscipline nature (covering economics, sociology, psychology, history, and law (among others) in dealing with contemporary developments regarding the relationship between management and labour (Wilkinson, A., Dundon, T., Donaghey, J. and Colvin, A. eds., 2018. The Routledge Companion to Employment Relations. Routledge. London)
This research focus area focuses on topics related to the management of employees in an organisation and include topics such as leadership, organisational justice, organisational citizenship behaviour, workplace treatment/well-being, work wellness and positive work behaviour, financial wellness of employees, employee selection, retention, workplace flexibility, commitment, employability, high performance work organisations and systems, employee remuneration and workforce diversity. This research focus area also includes specific research with regards to academics within the changing distance, contact and blended higher education contexts.
Prospective Master’s and Doctorate applicants should carefully read the detailed content of the RFA you are interested in, to ensure that your application is well aligned with its purpose and scope. The RFAs within the department will guide you to determine the type of topics that can be supervised. It is essential to apply within a specific RFA and to make sure that your topic aligns with the chosen RFA. An aligned RFA however does not guarantee acceptance as admissions are done according to supervision capacity. The strength of your research outline submitted will therefore play a very important role.
More information on staff research interests and current Master’s and Doctoral student’s study titles is available on our Departmental website under Research.
Please note that academics within the department work according to a niche area that is aligned with national research fund (NRF) purposes. Candidates to indicate in their application whether they would be open to change their proposed topic based on the needs identified within the HRM industry or an academic’s niche area. The aim of this is to ensure that research within the HRM field is current and addresses problems within the industry.
Last modified: Mon Aug 07 18:02:03 SAST 2023