Employees' perceptions of institutional values and employer‐employee relationships at the North‐West University

Abstract

A multicultural and multilingual tertiary environment-the North-West University (NWU), with an endorsed corporate identity-had recently gone through an incorporation process (where other tertiary institutions had been merged into the main institutional structure). This created an ideal environment for an article aimed at the relationship between employees' perceptions of how effective the institution upheld its values and the continued quality of its employee relationships. The university consists of three independent campuses, each with their own corporate identity, ethos and employer-employee relationship structure. This article sets out to determine the nature of the NWU's employer-employee relationships and employees' perceptions of the institution's newly established corporate identity. Furthermore, values, integrity, commitment, accountability and respect were only recently established and are currently in a process of being incorporated as institutional philosophy drivers into the corporate identity of the NWU. Against this background, the following research question is asked: what is the relationship between NWU employees' perceptions of the institution's values and employer-employee relationships? The article indicates that there is a connection between the do-value, integrity and the establishment of a communal relationship between the institution and its employees. identity elements influence the relationship towards the direction of a communal relationship. 250 L. Holtzhausen and L. Fourie Correlations (r) ≥ 0.3 are considered to have a medium effect and ≥0.5 are considered to have a large effect (Steyn, 2005).Values and relationship management 251

Framework for the Study of Employee Commitment

“…Organisational structure refers to both the communication lines and the reporting responsibilities in an institution (Holtzhausen & Fourie, 2011).…”

The implications of stakeholder consultation on employee engagement: An African cross-border acquisition

“…Employees feel this leads to weakened communal relationships as client welfare is not promoted and the organization's image suffers in the community, which they are part of and aim to serve (Holtzhausen and Fourie, 2011;Kumssa and Jones, 2015). By establishing a healthy psychological contract founded on a relationship of trust, disabling factors such as bias and labelling; ethnocentrism; unique environmental contexts; language differences; uncertainty; and different cultural values can be eliminated from the context (Chigwendere and Louw, 2018).…”

“…In a multi-cultural context, such as Africa, a tug of war can become a reality because of opposing worldviews ( Nyerere, 1968 ; Kumssa and Jones, 2015 ), which necessitated the importance of understanding that a transitional space should be created in which a mature stakeholder engagement process is facilitated to promote employee inclusion, engagement, and the sharing of knowledge. Employees feel this leads to weakened communal relationships as client welfare is not promoted and the organization’s image suffers in the community, which they are part of and aim to serve ( Holtzhausen and Fourie, 2011 ; Kumssa and Jones, 2015 ).…”