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Employee engagement recently emerged as a promising mechanism to improve organisational effectiveness and accordingly reduce the performance gap. This paper empirically demonstrates which employee engagement dimension(s) act as the strongest dimension to enhance the levels of employee engagement and consequently organisational effectiveness.

This study used a quantitative approach, specifically a survey design, using a questionnaire to collect data. Regression analysis was applied to predict the impact of the employee engagement dimensions on the level of employee engagement in organisations and the impact of online/social media, as part of communication, on employee engagement.

The statistical analyses indicate that the dimensions organisational strategy and implementation, organisational commitment and team commitment are significant predictors of employee engagement. On-line/social media has a negative effect on employee engagement. However, according to the results, communication in organisations can be improved, especially by using online/social media more effectively.

This includes low response rate from some groups.

The importance of secondary general management tasks, particularly motivation and communication, in mobilising employees to cooperate in pursuing organisational goals, became apparent. This study reflects the adverse effect of a lack of leadership and management skills, and ineffective use of online/social media on organisational performance, as reported in academic and practitioner research. Regardless, practitioners can apply the levers of motivation, via structural dimensions of organisation, to activate psychological presence which drives employee engagement and in turn facilitates strategy implementation and consequently organisational effectiveness. Scholars can modify their research agendas by investigating the “(un)availability” of human resources to improve organisational effectiveness.

The costs of disengaged employees are high, in terms of productivity losses and the performance gap, with adverse consequences for society.

Employee engagement as a driver of strategy implementation is an overlooked area of research. This study offers a better explanation of employee engagement as a mechanism to improve strategy implementation, thus reducing the performance gap, and consequently waste. Employee engagement engenders employee support to pursue organisational goals, in a coordinated system of cooperation, and is produced by the structural dimensions of organisation, the parameters within which psychological presence is activated. Psychological presence drives employee engagement which enables employees to be available to implement strategy to achieve organisational goals and thus organisational effectiveness. Engagement at a broader level than individual is significant.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate the influence of time on the results of the dimensions of employee engagement; and second, to determine whether there are any significant differences between the levels of engagement of the different demographic groups, so as to determine specific future interventions to improve employee engagement.

This study adopted a quantitative approach employing a survey which used a questionnaire to collect data from the same convenience sample, over a three-year period. The differences were tested by measuring change through an analysis of variance.

Three dimensions, namely, team commitment, team orientation and organisational strategy and implementation were significantly higher in the third than first period. Africans and respondents on lower job grades reported significantly lower levels of engagement than white respondents and top management.

The limitation of the study is the low participation rate of some groups.

Top management can foster engagement in addition to introducing effective interventions, based on sound measurement, to improve employees’ engagement levels.

Engaged employees are happy/healthy, which can be expected to spill over to their lives outside of the workplace and thus favourably influence society.

Limited longitudinal research in connection with employee engagement is published. This study provides evidence of a valid barometer for a multicultural, developing economy, against which employee engagement can be measured.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the leadership tasks at the different hierarchical levels in the organisation in terms of the teleological approaches to complexity science.

It is based upon a theoretical discussion linked to conceptual and managerial frameworks in conjunction with a conceptual analysis.

The introduced conceptual and managerial frameworks provide a foundation to the understanding of organisational performance. They also strive to offer a foundation of understanding to management and leadership and how they complement each other.

It is not easy to empirically substantiate complexity in conceptual and managerial frameworks. The authors use teleological approaches of complexity science in an unorthodox way that need validation in a broader context offering opportunities for further research.

We need to think differently about organisational performance and how we present and reflect on information that appears to be “linear” although it is not necessarily the case.

The paper contributes to an alternative assessment organisational performance. It endeavours to reflect on the complexity of organisations and taking into account a pluralistic approach that synthesises a variety of perspectives, including a bottom‐up approach to problem solving.

The divide in the conceptualisation of the terms “management” and “leadership” is not clear. The purpose of this paper is to explore the concepts of management and leadership.

The approach of the study followed a synthesis review and also applied content analysis, identifying the tasks constituting management and leadership respectively.

The findings of the literature review demonstrated that the concepts of management and leadership are intertwined. The word “management” has French and Italian roots, while the word “leadership” has Greek and Latin roots. Essentially, though, these words are synonymous. All of the tasks fall within the boundaries of management, while leadership tasks overlap with management. Unlike management, leadership has no distinct task that falls exclusively within its boundary.

Implications of the findings of the study include debate regarding how practising managers can know what is expected of them if the literature is unclear on the distinction between these concepts, and playing down the demonstrated need and relevance of management.

This paper is original as no previous work on management and leadership has attempted to compare the content of these concepts.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the status of management in South Africa.

This is achieved by firstly, providing a concise summary of the classical management theory. This is followed by a presentation of selected dimensions of South Africa's economic, social and political profile (cultural profile), as reflected in secondary sources. A discussion of South Africa's profile vis‐à‐vis management theory is presented.

The findings show that South Africa is faced with unique competitive challenges, which fall within the realm of management. Unfortunately, the unavailability of competent senior managers forms part of South Africa's problem, aggravating the situation.

The practical implications are that South African managers need to face their reality, by acquainting themselves with the sound theory underpinning management, available from reputable sources and applying these principles with insight. In so doing they will not only improve the competitive positions of their enterprises but also that of South Africa, as a whole. Moreover, they will impact the economy positively, be it domestically, regionally or globally and reap the benefits of success just like other firms and countries.

This paper is original in the sense that it seeks to give a comprehensive, however, brief overview of a complex topic, classical management, while linking it to South Africa's unique challenges. The value of this script lies in the concise presentation of classical management thought and the consequent implication that its consistent application could play a vital role in overcoming the competitive challenges facing South Africa.

This paper aims to determine the views of a select group of manager‐students on general management and leadership and whether or not their views correspond to classical management theory.

An exploratory‐descriptive approach was employed. Specifically, a survey was conducted among final‐year MBA students of a specific university. These students were all employed in management positions in their respective organisations.

The students viewed general management and leadership as being the same and their views correspond to the theory underpinning classical management.

Statistically, the findings cannot be generalised beyond the scope of this study due to its exploratory nature. However, the concepts referred to in this study can inform and be tested in further research.

It would seem that there is indeed a body of knowledge underpinning classical management. Mastery of this knowledge could enable managers to ensure the preferred competitive positions of their organisations.

This paper focuses attention anew on classical management and its scientific nature as well as its contribution to the sustained competitive success of organisations.

Over the last decade, trust repair has become an important theoretical and practical concern in HRM. The purpose of this paper is to explain why organisations fail to repair their stakeholders’ trust following a series of trust breaches.

Archival data is used to investigate the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Using the analytical frame of the detective novel, the authors analyse reputational scandals in RBS, and in doing so, they explore the interweaving of two stories: the story of the “crime” (the bank's actions which led to breaches of trust) and the story of the “detectives” (parliamentary, regulatory and press investigators).

Based on their analysis, the authors argue that the organisation's failure to repair trust is associated with ineffective detection of what went wrong in the bank and why.

HR practitioners dealing with similar situations should understand the complicated and unfolding nature of repeated transgressions, and the reasons why previous trust repair efforts may have failed.

An organisation may be showing willingness to accept responsibility for the violation of trust, but while new transgressions happen, trust repair efforts may fail. Therefore, what is needed in organisations is a longitudinal analysis that takes into account organisational history, including earlier wrongdoings.

The paper is one of the few analysing trust repair from a process perspective and using the metaphor of the detective novel to provide insights into organizational reintegration.