Orientation: The relationship between psychological capital (PsyCap) and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) is important to establish especially in the South African public hospitals where the quality of healthcare services have been reported to have deteriorated.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between psychological capital and organisational citizenship behaviour among nurses in the public hospitals.Motivation for the study: There is crisis in the public nursing sector as nurses are reported to be working under pressure as a result of increased workload and responsibilities beyond their scope of practice (in terms of doing the work that they are not trained for and more work than they can handle), in addition to rapidly changing work environments.Research approach, design and method: The present study follows a quantitative cross-sectional design using a questionnaire on a sample of 228 nurses from public hospitals in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa.Main findings: The findings of the study confirm that psychological capital has a significant positive relationship with organisational citizenship behaviour.Practical/managerial implications: The study recommends management to recognise the area of OCB in the public hospitals and work in nurturing and retaining those nurses capable of displaying such behaviours.Contribution/value add: The study validates aspect of reciprocity of the Social exchange theory. Nurses with high levels of hope, self-efficacy, resilience and optimism showed reciprocity through the display of OCBs. The study also validates the aspect of job resources in eroding job demands from the Job demands resources model.

Research purpose: This study sought to determine the relationship between public service employee’s mental health accounting for the role of organisational justice and workplace social support. Motivation for the study: Calls exist to understand issues of mental health within the confines of the organisation. Research approach/design and method: A survey approach utilising a convenience sample of 289 public service employees as respondents was utilised. The location of the study was the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. Main findings: The findings show that workplace social support has a direct and positive relationship with employee mental health. Organisational justice has no significant relationship with employee mental health. Workplace social support was found to fully mediate the relationship between organisational justice and employee mental health. Practical/managerial implications: Strategies can be put in place that inform the promotion of mental health with the public service. These include the need for support services to promote mental health to address organisational issues that impede the pathway of such interventions. Contribution/value-add: The findings proffer useful precursors to interventions that address the challenge of mental health.

Orientation: Although researchers have discovered many of the beneficial and positive consequences of job engagement, little is known about the multitude of antecedent factors that lead to employee engagement such as personality.Research purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between the big five personality traits and job engagement among municipal workers.Motivation for the study: The motivation of this study is to examine the relationship between personality and psychological conditions. It was premised on previous research that personality is associated with many employees’ behaviours.Research approach/design and method: The present study employed a quantitative, cross-sectional research design by using a questionnaire on a sample of 403 district municipal workers in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa.Main findings: The study findings show that openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness had a positive relationship with job engagement, whereas neuroticism has a negative relationship with job engagement. Municipalities and educational qualifications had an impact of job engagement.Practical/managerial implications: The study recommends managers to switch from an intervention-based focus to a selection-based focus as municipalities can maximise their resources by being able to better predict job success early in the selection process as opposed to trying to maximise the performance on a continual basis through interventions.Contribution/value-add: This study adds to an understanding of the influences of personality on work outcomes such as job engagement, giving areas for exploration in coaching or feedback interviews based on personality assessment.

Orientation: Increasing job engagement in a sustainable way remains a challenge and the question remains as to why employees, when working under comparable conditions display signs of job engagement whereas others display a few or no signs of job engagement. Research purpose: The aim of the study was to investigate the linear relationships and establish usable models for the big five personality traits and psychological conditions on job engagement amongst municipal workers. Motivation for the study: The motivation of this study is to examine the relationship between personality and psychological conditions on job engagement. Research approach/design and method: The study employed a quantitative, cross- sectional research design using a questionnaire on a sample of 403 district municipal workers in the Eastern Cape province, South Africa. Main findings: Findings show that conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, intellect and all psychological conditions had a positive relationship with job engagement while neuroticism has a negative relationship with job engagement. Hierarchical regression models revealed that psychological conditions add unique variance in predicting job engagement above and beyond that which is predicted by the personality traits. Practical/managerial implications: Job engagement can be enhanced through the hiring employees with certain personality traits and enhancing meaningfulness, safety and availability of psychological resources in the workplace. Contribution/value-add: The study findings support a relatively rich literature which suggests that employees with certain personality traits such as conscientiousness, agreeableness, intellect and perceives that all psychological conditions are being met tend to be more engaged in their job.

Orientation: Using appropriate selection procedures assists organisations in acquiring applicants with the right competencies, a positive attitude and alignment with organisational values, providing a competitive advantage in the market. Research purpose: The study aims to investigate the selection procedures used by South African organisations, including interviews, psychological assessments, reference checks, physical checks, and employment offers. Motivation for the study: The literature review revealed that there is limited research on employee selection practices in the South African context across various industries and organisations. Research approach/design and method: This qualitative study included a sample of 60 participants, and interpretivism was the paradigm the study followed. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and ATLAS.ti. Main findings: The study revealed that the most commonly used selection procedures included online competency-based interviews, psychometric assessments and reference checks. Practical/managerial implications: Not having an objective and well-trained selection panel may be detrimental to the fairness of the employee selection process. Managers should have different and innovative employee selection procedures to appoint employees with the appropriate competencies at the right time. Human resource practitioners need to act as change agents to promote the adoption of technology and innovation in their selection practices. Contribution/value-add: This study was conducted acrosss various organisations and proposes a new selection process that human resource management practitioners can use to select the right candidate. A seven-step selection framework is presented.