The Robben Island diversity experience. An exploration of South African diversity dynamics

Abstract

Orientation: Because of its historic, symbolic and psychological representation, presenting a diversity event on Robben Island posed invaluable opportunities to form an in-depth understanding of South African diversity dynamics. This research focussed on such an event interpreted from the systems psychodynamic perspective.Research purpose: The purpose of the research was to describe the experiences of participants attending the Robben Island Diversity Experience (RIDE) in order to understand South African diversity dynamics from a depth psychology perspective.Motivation for the study: Of the many and different diversity events presented in South African organisations, RIDE is the only annual systems psycho-dynamically designed and presented event. This research was an effort to explore the nature of these dynamics which manifest themselves from below the surface.Research design, approach and method: Qualitative and descriptive research from a hermeneutic phenomenology paradigm was used. The 15 participants who attended a RIDE event formed a case study. The data from an unstructured interview was content-analysed and interpreted using the systems psychodynamic perspective. The themes were integrated into a research hypothesis. Main findings:Five themes manifested themselves, namely, crossing boundaries, engaging the brave new world, ties that bind, being imprisoned and the struggle. Practical/managerial implications:The research highlighted the importance of understanding unconscious dynamics in the context of diversity in order to inform consultants about diversity management interventions in organisations. Contribution/value-add:The research contributed towards how South African diversity dynamics manifest themselves and how that can be addressed in organisations. IntroductionIn the South African context, DIVERSITY can indeed be written in capital letters. The country's history is fraught with differentiation, segregation, exclusion and discrimination (Bekker & Carlton, 1996;Eades, 1999). The replacement of the apartheid regime by the first democratically elected government in 1994 facilitated opportunities for everyone in the rainbow nation towards the celebration of diversity (Beck, 2000;Charlton & Van Niekerk, 1994). This road, to reconstruct the South African society, has been far from smooth (Hunt & Lascaris, 1998;Thompson, 2001).Organisations realised that diversity often leads to frustration, misunderstandings, unhealthy conflict and an increase in turnover of people if it is not properly managed (Milliken & Martins, 1996;Van Eron, 1995). Often such organisations use mechanistic approaches to diversity (Cilliers & May, 2002). Although these approaches do little more than achieve certain structural and behavioural changes, they seem to create an environment in which consultants and employees can work with diversity. A solitary diversity intervention is however doomed to failure since the emotions and resistance that it elicits, normally fuel various unconscious dynamics that subvert the possibility of tr...

Diversity dynamics operating between students lecturers and management in a historically Black university: The lecturers perspective

“…It appears that the conscious feelings, namely of feeling disempowered, baffled, disqualified, hurt and negated, experienced by the lecturers in the face of the accusations of racism by students, might attest to their sense of being denigrated by the (Black) students and management (see Pretorius, 2003;Skolnick & Green, 2004). The lecturers probably also experienced that the students and management, by projecting a racist identity onto them, perceived them to continue the racism and discrimination of the apartheid regime, specifically as the Vlakplaas of the university, against the (Black) students and management.…”

“…It affords us the opportunity to attend to unconscious phenomena within people, the organisational context (tasks, structures, boundaries) and the complex interaction between the two (Amado, 1995;Nutkevich, 1998). In diversity dynamics the theoretical underpinnings of SP are applied to understand the psychodynamics which occur in the context of difference and similarities amongst people (Cilliers & May, 2002;May & Evans, 2004;Pretorius, 2003).…”

“…The individuals then behave, on both a conscious and unconscious level, in a particular way towards each other, based on these differences and similarities (Pretorius, 2003). The defense mechanisms, splitting-projection-introjection-projective identification, underlie these diversity dynamics.…”

Individual diversity management and salutogenic functioning

“…Furthermore, legislation on employment equity and affi rmative action brought a unique kind of competition for economic and emotional survival into the workplace (Cilliers & Stone, 2005). In some organizations, the intolerances for the differences led to discomfort, disrespect and strong feelings of racial fear, anger, resentment, confl ict, competition, hurt, hopelessness and helplessness amongst employees (Cilliers & May, 2002;Pretorius, 2003). Managing diversity effectively relates to how managers can facilitate harmonious relationships between different people (Cilliers & Terblanche, 2010), through cognitive understanding and the experience of emotional meaning making (Watts, 2009).…”

“…how individual managers experience diversity situations intra-and interpersonally. The diversity literature indicates that the effective management of such diversity situations depends on the managers ' level of psychological functioning (Booysen, 2005;Pretorius, 2003). No research could be found investigating managers ' diversity experiences in this context.…”