Understanding individual workforce resilience of women in selected Durban organisational settings.
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Date
2017
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Over the past decades there has been an enormous increase in scientific
research publications, targeting resilience of women within the workplace environment.
Despite the potentially adverse effects that women may experience following adversities within
their environments, many of them thrive through exercising mindfulness, self-efficacy, coping
skills, while trying to manage the effects of neuroticism. Given the overall aim and purpose of
this study vis-à-vis: to understand individual workforce resilience of women in selected Durban
organisational settings; these factors are presented in terms of a ‘Biopsychological Model of
Resilience’ indicating their connections to promoting psychological resilience. Further in the
thesis, women experiences are discussed in light of feminism tenets to uncover their
significance to resilience in the context of experiences of women beyond the workplace
settings. METHODOLOGY: The study applied a qualitative approach, supported by the
social constructivism paradigm. Ten women were chosen to be an instrumental part in this
study, and were sourced based on preliminary set of criteria using purposive and snowballing
sampling methods. Participants were interviewed to allow comprehensive collection of baseline
insights and experiences on resilience over life history interviews. All interviews were
recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed thematically. A pilot study was performed to
address potential challenges to the achievement of the study prior to the launch of the research
process. FINDINGS: The multi-dimensional constructs of resilience and feminism theories
reviewed, have indicated a good fit with the analysed findings, regarding the participants’
perceptions toward resilience. Overall, the findings supported the hypothesis that
biopsychosocial dimensions influence the development of resilience. By not displaying
resilience qualities, adverse experiences had greater undesirable impacts on women. Women
reported experiences of different kinds of adversities including domestic violence, divorce,
workplace harassment and discrimination, breast cancer, and death of a loved one. Despite
experiencing challenges women reported using different strategies which helped them cope
with setbacks. The findings revealed that the attribute of resilience can be exhibited by
nurturing and applying resilience knowledge toward adverse experiences. Overall, the study
facilitates knowledge sharing on resilience of women which may be insightful or increase
awareness to different audiences regarding the theoretical underpinning of resilience.
CONCLUSION: A biopsychosocial model of resilience was used to understand how factors
such as mindfulness, self-efficacy, coping, neuroticism influenced resilience of women.
Moreover, the association between resilience of women and feminism is evident in this study,
and serves to highlight how the experiences of women from diverse personal and organisational
backgrounds fit into the model of resilience. IMPLICATIONS: The study provides initial
understandings of the multidimensional nature of psychological resilience which may throw
new light into how women in circumstances of adversity can thrive more effectively. The
Human Resource Management [HRM] should deepen understanding of individual workforce
resilience to develop and implement meaningful policies to encourage resilience. Further
studies should be conducted to explore the actual effect size of the individual resilience model
toward mitigating the outcomes of adversities.
Description
Master of Commerce in Human Resource Management. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2017.
Keywords
Theses - Management Studies.