Masters Degrees (Human Resource Development (Mil))

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    The effect of conscientiousness, openness to experience, and neuroticism on military identity in a South African military university: the moderating role of Selflessness
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2023-12) Solomons, Timothy Lydhann Dugald; Mthembu, Oscar Sandile; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Military Sciences. School for Human Research Development. Dept. of Industrial Psychology.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Identification with the organisation an individual is working for has been associated with performance (He & Brown, 2013), positive attitude, positive work outcomes, etc.; it is therefore very important to study. According to Rao et al. (2019), being associated with an organisation can develop pride in members and lead to organisational identification among employees. The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of personality traits such as Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience, and Neuroticism on Military Identity, as well as to establish the moderating role of Selflessness in these relationships. The purpose of this study was to make a commitment to reduce the capital and time that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) invests in people who join the forces for personal gain and self-satisfaction. The findings of this report will be discussed with SANDF recruiting staff to realign recruitment and hiring requirements and procedures. A survey research design with the use of questionnaires was utilised. The questionnaires were administered at one point in time within the normal environment of students at the national military university with no interference from the researcher. The following instruments were used to gather information from the participants. The first scale was the Big Five Inventory consisting of 44 items (John & Srivastava, 1999), the selfless scale (Dambrun, 2017), and the Norwegian Professional Identity Scale developed by Johansen et al. (2013) to measure Military Identity. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 27 (IBM, 2021) was used to conduct reliability and dimensionality analyses on the collected data. Confirmatory factor analyses for each scale were conducted. The revised measurement and structural model can generally be regarded as good. Measurement and structural models were fitted to the data using structural equation modelling through Linear Structural Relationships. The findings indicated a positive relationship between Conscientiousness and Military Identity; a positive relationship between Openness to Experience and Military Identity; and a significant negative relationship between Neuroticism and Military Identity. The findings also indicated that different levels of Selflessness had a significant impact on the level of Military Identity when Conscientiousness was set as the predictor; different levels of Selflessness had a significant impact on the level of Military Identity when Openness to Experience was set as the predictor; and different levels of Selflessness had a significant impact on the level of Military Identity when Neuroticism was set as the predictor. The limitations of the study and recommendations for future studies are presented at the end of the report. This study’s findings will help the SANDF to implement better recruitment strategies.