Attitudes towards and experience of employment equity

Abstract

<strong>Orientation:</strong> The demography of the South African work force has changed considerably since the implementation of <em>Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998</em>. There is no clarity in the literature on employees’ attitudes towards and experiences of employment equity (EE).<p><strong>Research purpose:</strong> The purpose of this research was to contribute to the EE debate by qualitatively identifying and exploring employees’ attitudes towards and experiences of EE in the South African work context.</p><p><strong>Research design, approach and method:</strong> Twenty-one organisations were included in the study and 105 interviews conducted.</p><p><strong>Main findings:</strong> The results indicated that employees at management level perceived government as an EE ‘watchdog’. Furthermore, reverse discrimination and racism were demarcated as the main experience of non-management employees. For previously disadvantaged employees, the main concerns were lack of training and development, whereas for the non-previously disadvantaged the primary concerns were reverse discrimination, racism and victimisation.</p><p><strong>Pratical/managerial implications:</strong> Future research may be that the results can benefit from contrasting, (1) the perspectives of previously disadvantaged management versus previously advantaged management to (2) the perspectives of previously disadvantaged non-management versus previously advantaged non-management. Furthermore, it will be valuable to include other industries in the private and public sector in future samples.</p><p><strong>Contribution/value-add:</strong> The contribution of the research is building and/or supporting the current knowledge base of employees’ attitudes towards and experiences of EE in the South African work context. Proactive measures should be taken to ensure that the majority of previously disadvantaged and the non-previously disadvantaged groups benefit from EE legislation. The introduction of holistic human resource management practices that complement target setting, could overcome the stumbling blocks currently being experienced in the effective implementation of EE.</p><p><strong>How to cite this article:</strong><br /> Oosthuizen, R.M., & Naidoo, V. (2010). Attitudes towards and experience of employment equity. <em>SA Journal of Industrial Psychology/SA Tydskrif vir Bedryfsielkunde, 36</em>(1), Art. #836, 9 pages. DOI: 10.4102/sajip.v36i1.836</p&gt

Distance Learning Students’ Graduateness as Predictors of Their Job Satisfaction and Optimism about Future Career Prospects

“…This is an interesting observation when considering that current employment equity and affirmative action legislation in South African organisations favours the career advancement of women. These results may suggest that the female participants may still experience limited career advancement opportunities in a historically male dominant work environment (Oosthuizen and Naidoo 2010). Notwithstanding these differing perceptions about future career prospects, the results revealed no significant differences between the job satisfaction of the gender and race groups.…”

Job insecurity, career opportunities, discrimination and turnover intention in post-apartheid South Africa: examples of informative hypothesis testing

“…If companies follow a last in first out (LIFO) policy in their retrenchment practices this could also increase job insecurity levels of designated employees; research has also shown that when the business cycle weakens this is usually the case, even when there is no compelling evidence that black people were the last to be hired (Couch & Fairlie, 2010). As training and development is considered to be crucial for the effective implementation of EE/AA policies (Jain, Horwitz, & Wilkin, 2012), and when a situation exists in which these employees suffer a lack of development (Oosthuizen & Naidoo, 2010), these employees may experience more job security and seek to move to another working environment.…”

“…Nondesignated males have specifically been shown to experience higher levels of job insecurity than designated employees (Bowen et al, 2013), and that they are aware of their low prospects of upward mobility within the organization they are working for due to affirmative action policies (Oosthuizen & Naidoo, 2010). Two meta-analyses have illustrated the strong positive link between job insecurity and turnover (Cheng & Chan, 2008;Sverke, Hellgren, & Näswall, 2002).…”

Exploring career advancement challenges people with disabilities are facing in the South African work context

“…The question therefore arises: is the legislation adequate to address the discrimination and inequality experienced by individuals living with a disability? Oosthuizen and Naidoo (2010) found that organisations only comply with EE legislative requirements in an 'EE numbers chasing game', where employers are only concerned with increasing EE and Affirmative Action (AA) figures rather than improving their EE status quo through value-adding investments. Oosthuizen and Naidoo (2010) further argue that EE and AA progress should be measured on the criteria of numbers as well as their organisational climate.…”