Towards the conceptualisation of emotional labour in the postgraduate research supervision process

dc.contributor.advisorDu Plessis, Yvonne
dc.contributor.coadvisorO'Neil, Sumari
dc.contributor.postgraduateVorster, Stefanus Christian
dc.date.accessioned2013-09-09T07:24:41Z
dc.date.available2013-04-18en
dc.date.available2013-09-09T07:24:41Z
dc.date.created2013-04-04en
dc.date.issued2012en
dc.date.submitted2013-03-17en
dc.descriptionDissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2012.en
dc.description.abstractThis study commences with a preliminary literature review of the existing academic knowledge based on research done on the presence of emotional labour in various occupations. The purpose of this study is to conceptualise and explore the postgraduate research supervision process and to establish whether emotional labour is present in this context. Recent literature on postgraduate supervision led the researcher to believe that there was evidence that the workload of and work pressure on postgraduate research supervisors have increased in more ways than one. To further investigate this notion, the researcher followed a qualitative approach and applied a social constructivist research paradigm firstly to construct a theoretical framework based on current literature on emotional labour and postgraduate supervision, and secondly to explore the experiences and perceptions of postgraduate supervisors, and to relate the findings to the emotional labour literature on the entire postgraduate supervision process. Purposive and convenient sampling methods were followed in order to get access to a representative sample of research supervisors who complied with the criteria of being experienced in the postgraduate supervision process. Furthermore, in-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted with eight postgraduate research supervisors. These interviews produced rich data that was obtained by asking open questions in a semi-structured manner. Themes were developed from the data via thematic data analysis, and member checking was initialised to measure the trustworthiness of the data collected. The findings of this study present sufficient evidence that emotional labour, as experienced by postgraduate supervisors, is present. It also provides an understanding of how postgraduate research supervisors experience their roles as supervisors and what emotional aspects are involved when interacting with students during the postgraduate research process, especially in the South African higher education context. The practical contribution of this study applies to the relationship between supervisor and student and the postgraduate research supervision process and the finding that the presence of emotional labour can have an effect on this supervisory relationship and the throughput process. In addition, the study contributes methodologically to the investigation of the process of emotional labour and the application of the findings to explore occupations for the presence of emotional labour.en
dc.description.availabilityUnrestricteden
dc.description.degreeMCom
dc.description.departmentHuman Resource Managementen
dc.identifier.citationVorster, SC 2012, Towards the conceptualisation of emotional labour in the postgraduate research supervision process, MCom Dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/30692>en
dc.identifier.otherC13/4/329/gmen
dc.identifier.upetdurlhttp://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-03172013-204646/en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/30692
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherUniversity of Pretoria
dc.rights© 2012 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria C13/4/329/en
dc.subjectUCTDen
dc.titleTowards the conceptualisation of emotional labour in the postgraduate research supervision processen
dc.typeDissertationen

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