Christoff Botha

A model to measure the employee engagement was developed by researching historical employee engagement models. These models, consisting of employee engagement constructs and their measuring criteria, have been empirically validated and factorized into seven employee engagement factors. The seven employee engagement factors (of which factor one consists of two sub-factors) were subjected to confirmatory factor analysis to ensure the inclusion of the factors in the validated model to measure employee engagement. The model was also tested for goodness of fit, and the model shows good fit indices with the Comparative Fit Index (0.799), while the good model fit of the secondary fit indices RMSEA (0.078 within a narrow margin of 0.004) and Hoelter (113 at p <= 0.1; 111 at p <= 0.05) also show satisfactory model fit. Management can use the model as diagnostic tool to measure employee engagement and to apply it in managerial decision-making. On the other hand, academics could apply the model to extend their research in employee engagement

This article compares an existing model to measure competence of managers educated within the business school environment to a similar model at another business school setting. The existing management model initially developed by Thekiso’s is evaluated to determine if the model can be operationalised, hence can be regarded as valid, to apply to another business school’s educated manager sample to measure their managerial competence. Resultantly, Thekiso’s original model was applied to another similar sample at another business school educated manager population in KwaZulu-Natal. These respondents also studied towards a Master of Business Administration degree but their specific cultural, language and business school variables differed. The objective was then to validate the Thekiso model in different application settings. The results showed that the data were suitable to use to determine if the existing model can be used as it is to measure managerial competence. Also, the results indicated that Thekiso’s existing model is not generic and cannot be operationalised as it is school-specific. The anbalysis showed that the measuring criteria developed by Thekiso are relevant but the specific factors identified differ in nature and number, hence altering the core of the measuring model itself. As a result, the article formulates an alternative model for use in KwaZulu-Natal to measure skills for managerial competence in the province. This research is of value to management, academia and researchers because it renders an alternative model to measure managerial competence whilst also warning against operationalization of any of the two models without further validation.