Abstract
This article reports on employees’ perceptions of the treatment of employees from designated groups in the workplace. The objective of the study was to identify the components of workplace treatment that indicate the perceived treatment of employees from designated groups. The study further investigated the influence of demographic factors on these perceptions. A quantitative approach was followed, and a questionnaire was developed to collect data pertaining to employees’ biographical details and their perceptions of the treatment of employees from designated groups in the workplace. The population consisted of 29 688 employees at a leading South African bank and a sample of 1720 was used. A disproportionate, stratified sampling method was adopted and a sample of 349 employees participated. Factor analysis, correlations, T-tests and analysis of variance statistics were computed to achieve the objectives. The factor analysis identified four factors relating to the treatment of employees from designated groups: task autonomy, respect, responsibility and realistic expectations. The results of the T-tests revealed that race, years of service and staff category do influence employees’ perceptions of the treatment of workers from designated groups in terms of task autonomy and respect. Black respondents, unlike white respondents, believe that employees from designated groups are not treated with respect, nor are they accorded task autonomy. This study represents a vital step towards a better understanding of the dimensionality of perceptions of fair and just treatment and should ultimately contribute to more effective treatment of all employees in the workplace.
Highlights
South Africa, no longer a pariah, has had preferred nation status across the world since the dawn of its democracy in 1994
There is some evidence of success in the implementation of the EE Act, as reported year on year by the Employment Equity Commission (EEC), there is still more to be done in transforming the workplace in South Africa
This study indicated that treatment in the workplace in terms of task autonomy, respect, responsibility and expectations is directly related to interactional fairness and outlined how employees from designated groups wish to be treated in the workplace
Summary
South Africa, no longer a pariah, has had preferred nation status across the world since the dawn of its democracy in 1994. The collapse of the apartheid systems made way for the new government to promulgate a series of Acts that sought to build a humane, inclusive, non-racial and caring society These Acts include: the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (focusing on employer-employee relations); the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1998 (focusing on working conditions); the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998 (focusing on the abolition of unfair discrimination; and the implementation of affirmative action measures in the workplace); and the Skills. It obliges every designated employer to put in place measures for ensuring that suitably qualified persons from designated groups are afforded equal employment opportunities and are equitably represented in all occupational categories and levels of the workforce These measures include eliminating barriers, furthering diversity, making reasonable accommodation for persons from designated groups, training and establishing numerical targets, but excluding the establishment of an absolute barrier to the prospective or continued employment of persons who are not from designated groups. The focus was on employees from designated groups
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