Abstract
Background: A typology of desirable social conditions in supervisory relationships suggested that such conditions may also be desirable in other forms of labour relationships. A literature review confirmed that trust, compliance, fairness and good faith can be confidently regarded as universally desirable social conditions in all forms of individual or collective labour relationships between employers and employees.Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine if primary labour relationship quality (PLQ) can be confidently conceptualised as a social construct that strongly relates to the perceived levels of compliance, fairness and good faith in supervisory or primary labour relationships.Setting: A combination of random and convenience sampling approaches was implemented to collect PLQ related data from 454 voluntary respondents, who were subordinate employees in the Tshwane region.Methods: A quantitative research methodology was adopted. This included conceptual definition of the PLQ construct, objective measurement of PLQ levels of voluntary respondents in an adequately sized sample, factor analysis and testing for relationships and differences in means between variables.Results: Data analysis results confirmed that it can be confidently concluded that the conceptual definition of PLQ was valid, and that positive PLQ perceptions of subordinate employees were significantly related to at least two other forms of desirable organisational outcomes.Conclusion: PLQ perceptions can be confidently defined as a distinct subjective quality estimate that is assimilated from unique expectations and perceptions of the levels of compliance, fairness, good faith and trust that a supervisor displays in a labour relationship with an immediate subordinate.
Highlights
BackgroundLabour relations is a field of study that examines all forms of relationships that occur between any number of people who are related through some or other form of labour, and the internal and external environmental variables that influence the expectations, perceptions and behaviour of primary and secondary relationship stakeholders
An independent samples Mann– Whitney U test confirmed that there is no statistically significant difference between the Primary labour relationship quality (PLQ) perceptions of subordinates who report to a supervisor that belongs to a different age group, which were defined as those under 35 and those who are 35 years or older (p = 0.650)
The measurement and investigation of supervisor expectations and perceptions on PLQ is recommended
Summary
Labour relations is a field of study that examines all forms of relationships that occur between any number of people who are related through some or other form of labour, and the internal and external environmental variables that influence the expectations, perceptions and behaviour of primary and secondary relationship stakeholders. The term primary labour relations will be preferred in this study to ensure focus on labour relationship behaviour in supervisory relationships In this context, tertiary labour relations will be regarded as relationships between organised groups of employees and employers, or their representatives and the state, as well as other macro-level stakeholders (Bendix 2015; Nel et al 2016; Venter & Levy 2015). They were of the opinion that any advance in the definition, expansion or validation could be regarded as an advancement of knowledge that is aimed at the eventual revelation of scientifically founded truths, and encouraged researchers to undertake more quantitative, qualitative and mixed method research studies relating to theory building These views confirmed that quantitative research into validity of the primary labour relationship quality (PLQ) construct would advance scientific knowledge on labour relationship and organisational behaviour in South African organisations, to some or other extent. Limitations, recommendations and final conclusions will be discussed in the closing section
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