Doctoral Degrees (Industrial Organization and Labour Studies)

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The process of empowerment of Blacks in affirmative action programmes.
(1996) Magojo, Thandekile Sylvia.; Sitas, Aristides.
This research focuses on the experiences of Africans within the management ranks in South African organisations in the private sector. It examines progress (successes and failures) in the implementation of affirmative action programmes. The research further examines power as a concomitant of the managerial role. It argues that the approach that uses the notion of socio-psychological barriers directed to the individual aspirant may be incomplete in explaining lack of mobility if it fails to account for the broader power dynamics and structures within South African organisations. Furthermore, it explores attributes of individual managers as well as those of organisations in order to establish the fit between the individual and the organisation, looks at practices that are often associated with affirmative action programmes and describes empirically the experiences of black managers in such settings. The research concludes that in the absence of programmes that enable aspirant executives to empower themselves psychologically for upward mobility, affirmative action programmes may not be sustainable. The underlying assumption of this research is that the historical legacy which subjected Africans to an official policy of discrimination for decades impeded their upward mobility in the labour market, thus enabling the white labour force to occupy a position of privilege in the private sector. In such settings white managers are confronted with the role of implementing affirmative action programmes which pose a threat to the privileges they have grown accumstomed to. White managers are thus perceived by their black counterparts as reluctant agents of change. The research is guided by the hypotheses that where blacks in managerial positions perceive themselves as being unable to influence organisational decisions, or as having no control over resources, people and information, they would feel that affirmative action is disempowering. To obtain the required information a structured interview schedule with both open ended and closed-ended questions was used. Questions tapped the perceptions of black managers regarding their empowerment in employing organisations. Face-to-face interviews with 100 black managers from the private sector were conducted by the author. The resultant data was captured on a computer data base and then subjected to various forms of statistical analyses. The main predictor of feelings of empowerment was found to be the manager's centrality in decision-making processes. It was also found that positive relationships with superiors and colleagues influenced feelings of empowerment, as did membership of corporate clubs. Job rank was positively related to relationships with superiors and colleagues. It was also found that affirmative action environments presented this group with some contradictions: they advanced much slower than their white colleagues, and supervised largely, or only blacks, and/or are in specialist positions with no budgetary control. Organisational climate factors (negative attitudes and unfair promotional practices) were still perceived to be in place. Educational qualifications were not found to be good predictors of empowerment. The findings suggest that affirmative action programmes need to take the heterogeneity of managers into account. Management must show that managing diversity is crucial to their productivity and competitiveness. It is also important for such programmes to examine the format of corporate clubs, and consider altering them to accommodate the social reality of black managers. Lastly, a fundamental transformation of power relations is necessary so that decision-makers operate from more or less the same level of power.
Wage income, migrant labour and livelihoods beyond the rural-urban divide in post-apartheid South Africa: a case of Dunlop Durban factory workers.
(2014) Bhengu, Sithembiso.; Sitas, Aristides.
This thesis investigates the reproduction of the African working class in post-apartheid South Africa. The research examines the relationship between wage income and the mobilisation of livelihoods of working class households across the rural-urban divide. Through an ethnographic study with Dunlop workers, the research examines rural-urban linkages of African workers, interrogating how these linkages are maintained and how they play out in mobilisation and struggles for livelihoods in everyday life. Based on literature on workers and livelihoods in South Africa, the research hypothesis argues that wage income remains the main pillar and source of the reproduction of life and the mobilisation of livelihoods of working class households, both rural and urban. To interrogate these propositions three areas of evidence needed to be developed into key questions: 1. The centrality of wage labour to the mobilisation of livelihoods in extended familial households across the rural-urban divide. 2. Secondly, establishing the degree of these rural-urban linkages and networks and the form they take. 3. Lastly, working life and struggles, and the everyday life of African workers and their household networks. In answering these questions the thesis explores three major arguments. The first argument is that social reproduction, lives and livelihoods of working class South Africans are organised and reorganised across the rural-urban divide. Wage income remains the most important resource in the production, reproduction of the African working class in post-apartheid South Africa. The thesis argues that Dunlop workers have and continue to service dual (and some instances multiple) familial networks across the rural-urban divide. These familial networks are serviced through visits, remittances, the supporting of adult children to find accommodation in the city when looking for employment and through the performance of traditional rituals. The second key argument is that Dunlop‘s institutional production regimes continue to be organised through what I call a racialised ordering and lack of substantive transformation on the shop floor. These precipitate antagonistic relations between workers and management as well as a militant workforce. As a result, despite the contradictions and contestations noted in the literature about trade unions in post-apartheid South Africa (Buhlungu, 2006, 2010; Social Development, 2004, 2006; Kenny, 2004; Seekings, 2004; Seekings and Nattrass, 2002, 2005), workers continue to identify them as their bona fide voice. Shop floor militancy is constructed by invoking the popular history of trade unions and through shop floor socialisation of younger workers by their older familial networks. The third argument is that workers‘ narratives are complex. The thesis explores Sitas‘ (2004a) assertion that the narratives of workers‘ lives and their struggles are not simple, neat, straightforward and predictable, as generalist theorists would argue. Instead, they are complex and articulated with class, race, gender, rural-urban milieu, culture, struggle, violence and identity-making meaning in everyday life.

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