Fostering organisational commitment: a resilience framework for private-sector organisations in South Africa.

Introduction: Organisations worldwide encounter three significant and challenging issues related to talent management: intense competition for skilled employees, elevated rates of employee attrition, and the ongoing struggle to attract top-tier talent. This research focused on investigating the interconnected dynamics among factors associated with employee retention, including organisational commitment, job embeddedness, and hardiness, in conjunction with resilience-related behaviours such as resilience and career adaptability. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was used to gather quantitative data from a convenience sample of employees within the private sector in South Africa (N = 293). The self-assessments of the participants were assessed using a range of well-established and validated instruments. Correlation and regression analyses, followed by structural equation modelling, were utilised to construct a resilience framework designed specifically for private sector organisations in South Africa. Results: The results reveal significant associations between organisational commitment, job embeddedness, and hardiness (as retention-related attributes) and resilience and career adaptability (as resilience-related behavioural capacities). These relationships served as the basis for the development of a resilience framework for employees in South African private organisations. Discussion: In South African private-sector organisations, talent retention is crucial due to a talent shortage. The study found that employees have a strong emotional attachment to their organisations, are highly aligned with their jobs and communities, and display resilience. Organisational commitment, job embeddedness, and hardiness are key factors in reducing turnover, forming an effective retention strategy. This research contributes to the development of a resilience framework for South African private sector organisations.

Mutations in the parkin gene are a minor cause of Parkinson's disease in the South African population.

The molecular basis of Parkinson's disease (PD) has been extensively studied in numerous population groups over the past decade. However, very little is known of the molecular etiology of PD in the South African population. We aimed to assess the genetic contribution of parkin mutations to PD pathology by determining the frequency of both point mutations and exon rearrangements in all 12 exons of the parkin gene in a group of 229 South African patients diagnosed with PD. This was done by performing high resolution melt (HRM) as well as multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) analyses. In total, seven patients (3.1%; 7/229) had either compound heterozygous or homozygous mutations in parkin, and seven patients (3.1%) had heterozygous sequence variants. Two of the patients with parkin mutations are of Black African ancestry. Reverse-transcription PCR on lymphocytes obtained from two patients verified the presence of parkin mutations on both alleles. In conclusion, the present study reveals that mutations in the parkin gene are not a major contributor to PD in the South African population. Further investigations of the molecular etiology of PD in the unique South African population, particularly the Black African and mixed ancestry sub-populations, are warranted.