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ORIENTATION : Executive pay has been increasing; however, company performance has not been increasing proportionally. This could be due to an agency problem, resulting in executive pay not aligning with the shareholders' desired company performance. RESEARCH PURPOSE : The purpose of this research was to establish if there was a relationship between the total pay of the chief executive officer and their company's financial performance in South African Schedule 2 state-owned entities (SOEs). MOTIVATION FOR THE STUDE : A review of literature revealed conflicting views regarding the relationship between executive pay and company financial performance. There were limited studies conducted in South Africa, especially considering SOEs. RESERACH APPROACH/DESIGN AND METHOD : This research was a quantitative, archival study using 8 years of secondary data from South African Schedule 2 SOEs. Spearman's rank-order correlation was used to evaluate the relationship. MAIN FINDINGS : One significant weak positive relationship was observed when considering the net profit or loss metric of financial performance. Hence, there was no conclusive relationship between executive pay and company financial performance, which supported the proposition that there is an agency problem in South African SOEs. PRACTICAL/MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS : There is a distinct need for an all-encompassing SOE legislation framework to standardise pay structure and reporting requirements. Additionally, accurate measures of performance are necessary to overcome the agency problem. CONTRIBUTION/VALUE-ADD : This research adds to the limited knowledge base regarding the relationship between executive pay and company financial performance in South African SOEs. It also identified the need to incorporate non-financial metrics to influence executive pay. ; http://www.sajhrm.co.za ; am2021 ; Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)

ORIENTATION : The gender pay gap is a worldwide challenge that has persisted despite political will and interventions. Comparably qualified women performing similar work as men continue to earn less. There are conflicting views in the literature regarding the status of the gender pay gap. RESEARCH PURPOSE : The purpose of the study was to determine status of the gender pay gap among employees in the same salary band and to establish whether men and women receive similar pay for similar work in the study population. MOTIVATION FOR STUDY: The status of the gender pay gap would establish the progress made towards closing the gap and guide necessary adjustments to interventions. RESEARCH APPROACH/DESIGN AND METHOD : A quantitative analysis was conducted on the pay information of 217 902 employees collected in a survey from over 700 companies, across 10 job families and 6 industries. MAIN FINDINGS : Men's pay was consistently higher than that of women in all salary bands except at the 75th and 95th percentile in sub-bands B-lower and B-upper and 25th percentile in sub-band E-upper. The gender pay gap ranged from 8% in band A to 27.1% in sub-band F-upper. The gaps observed in the salary bands were statistically significant (p < 0.0001) except in sub-band E-upper, F-lower and F-upper, indicating convergence towards similar pay for similar work at senior to top management levels. Women were under-represented in all salary bands with the lowest presence in band F, especially sub-band F-upper. Gender, race, job family and industry have a significant effect on income earned in the study sample. PRACTICAL/MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS : Government's efforts seemed to have produced minimal results as women are represented in all job families, industries and salary bands. The pay of men and women in senior and top management levels was similar. However, more still needs to be done to achieve the 50% target representation of women in senior management and close the gap at all levels. CONTRIBUTION/VALUE-ADD : The number of women ...

Servant leadership has been researched internationally and various types of favourable individual, team, and organisational outcomes have been linked to the construct. Different servant leadership measures have been validated to date and a clear distinction has been made between the theory of servant leadership and other leadership theories. However, it seems that research on the implementation of servant leadership within an organisation is still in need. The main functions of a servant leader are not yet conceptualised in the literature to help researchers or practitioners to implement servant leadership successfully within organisations. After conducting a systematic literature review, the main functions of a servant leader were identified. These functions were clustered into strategic servant leadership and operational servant leadership and supported by servant leadership characteristics and competencies as defined by current literature. The results of this study might help practitioners to develop servant leaders more effectively and assist organisations to cultivate a servant leadership culture within companies. Limitations and future research needs are discussed.

It is widely recognized that in the management of employee pay, there is a definite divide between government and the private sector. The immediate question comes to mind: "How is performance-related pay working in government?" A closer look provides insight on the kind of challenges governments are facing in getting this process working. It is obvious that they need to, as this pay philosophy is not working as it should or could. A proper analysis of the current scenario would pave the way to a much improved performance-related pay structure in government as a whole. It is clear that the link to performance management is of critical importance. Should governments and the private sector alike not start to learn from each other, instead of adopting the "we are better and different than you philosophy?" It is all one economy in each country with two major role players, of which government is a significant stakeholder. It is hoped that this article will assist senior government officials in establishing that closer link between performance and pay.

PurposeDespite widespread media attention and growing interest from researchers, pay transparency remains an under-studied field of research and its impact on organizational outcomes like job turnover is not well understood. This study explores the impact of pay transparency on job turnover intentions through the mediating effect of perceived organizational support (POS) and organizational justice.Design/methodology/approachData from quantitative surveys conducted with 299 employees at four South African organizations with different pay transparency practices were used to test the conceptual model of pay transparency impacting job turnover intentions through the mediators of POS and organizational justice.FindingsThe authors found a weak negative relationship between pay transparency and job turnover intentions and the role of the mediating variables was confirmed. Unexpectedly, the role of the organization emerged as a key variable. Controlling for organization type showed that the direct effect of pay transparency on turnover intentions became insignificant, indicating a stronger effect from organizational factors, of which pay transparency practices are just one.Originality/valueIdentifying a contextual (organizational) dimension to pay transparency practices extends the understanding of this concept and has implications for practice. The study also makes a methodological contribution by demonstrating the value of linking respondent data to a particular organization when researching pay transparency.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to investigate if the presence of non-financial rewards (specifically work-life balance, learning, and career advancement) were able to influence the perceived attractiveness of a job offering. A secondary objective was to establish if there were demographic differences, specifically, gender, race, and age differences in the manner in which these non-financial rewards influenced the perceived attractiveness of a job offer.


Design/methodology/approach
– A quantitative research approach was followed and a 23 full-factorial experimental design utilised. Data were collected with two questionnaires via convenience (non-probability) sampling. The first job attraction questionnaire assessed the perceived level of attractiveness to one of eight randomly assigned experimental conditions (stimuli) that were expressed as eight fictitious job advertisements. Employees who responded were from various industries (n=180). The data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics and a full-factorial ANOVA. A second questionnaire was used to assess the perceived attractiveness of various elements of a typical total rewards package. The validity and reliability of the second questionnaire was assessed using Exploratory Factor Analysis utilising the Principal Axis Factoring extraction method, employing a Direct Oblimin (i.e. Oblique) rotation, and calculating Cronbach α coefficients, respectively. Descriptive statistics were calculated for the composite factors or reward elements.


Findings
– The non-financial reward elements (work-life balance, learning, and career advancement) were found to have statistically significant main effects on employees' perceived attractiveness of a job offering. Gender was further found to also have a significant main effect, indicating that the presence of non-financial rewards was more attractive in job offerings for women than for men.


Research limitations/implications
– The sample group was obtained by means of convenience sampling and may not have been adequately representative of the target population.


Practical implications
– Organisations may benefit from these results by implementing and/or emphasising non-financial rewards as part of a total rewards package when they attempt to attract or recruit potential employees. Organisations that seek to attract a higher number of female employees may benefit from the results by incorporating or further emphasising non-financial rewards as part of a targeted job offer.


Originality/value
– Substantial research exists that has identified reward elements that are effective in attraction strategies, but the authors are unaware of any literature where use was made of an experimental design to empirically show that non-financial rewards effect/influence perceived job attractiveness. The current study succeeded in identifying that the presence of non-financial rewards, as part of a job advertisement led to significantly higher levels of job attractiveness in prospective employees. Also, that there are gender differences in the extent to which the presence of non-financial rewards effect perceived attractiveness of a job offer.

ORIENTATION : Practices employed to manage the human resources at Johannesburg (JHB) Metropolitan Municipality were explored to unearth their impact on employee performance. RESEARCH PURPOSE : The study sought to reveal the human resource management (HRM) practices that could support employee performance at local government. THE MOTIVATION FOR THE STUDY : The achievement of organisational goals depends on HRM practices that enhance employee competencies. Employee performance in municipalities is often considered to be substandard. This study aimed to strengthen HRM practices to enhance performance at JHB Metropolitan Municipality. RESEARCH APPROACH/DESIGN AND METHOD : The qualitative inquiry adopted an interpretive stance to reveal participants' experiences that relate to employee performance. Ten participants were identified purposively and the obtained data were analysed with the assistance of the Atlas.ti software. MAIN FINDINGS : Whilst the organisation's employee-attraction practices were strong, its retention practices were weak. Employees generally felt undervalued, which negatively affected their morale and the organisation's goal attainment. PRACTICAL/MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS : The organisation should introduce effective employeeretention strategies, focussing on thorough needs analyses, skills development and rewards linked to performance. Building employee commitment should be prioritised. STUDY CONTRIBUTION : Human resource management effectiveness in the Johannesburg Municipality would be enhanced by appropriate soft HRM investment in senior management either through recruitment or development or both. Furthermore, the municipal culture should change from HRM practices that are influenced by tradition to an adaptive approach that responds to public-sector dynamics and varying employee expectations. ; http://www.sajhrm.co.za ; hj2022 ; Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)