This study is within the field of Industrial and Organisational Psychology. It focuses on the relationship between diversity management and organisational climate dimensions. The literature review indicates that most of the research conducted on these two concepts, diversity management and organisational climate investigated the concept diversity, not diversity management (Cox, 1993; Hicks-Clarke & Hies, 2003). This study specifically explores diversity management in a retail organisation. The empirical component of the study includes confirmatory factor analysis, reliability analysis and a correlational study investigating the relationship between diversity management and organisational climate. It was found that there is a positive and strong relationship between diversity management and organisational climate. Diversity management seems to correlate highly with the following climate dimensions: policies and procedures, discrimination, gender issues, equality in conditions of employment and employment equity. The results indicate that younger employees have more positive views regarding diversity management, and middle aged employees have less positive views regarding diversity management. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Admin (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

Em 1993, John Rawls, notável filósofo e professor da distinta Harvard University, publicou seu Political Liberalism, um livro em que pela primeira vez sintetiza sistematicamente o conceito de razão pública, uma ideia chave de sua teoria da justiça como equidade (justice as fairness). Segundo Rawls, a razão pública consiste fundamentalmente no modo e conteúdo adequados ao debate e à fundamentação de escolhas essenciais de justiça no espaço público de uma democracia constitucional. Nesse sentido, Rawls advoga que o único meio razoável de justificação da coerção estatal reside no reconhecimento e/ou obtenção de consensos (overlapping consensus) em relação às escolhas essenciais de uma sociedade democrática, o que só é possível se atores públicos e privados se despojarem de suas respectivas doutrinas filosóficas ou morais abrangentes ao debater e decidir tais questões essenciais de justiça. A presente dissertação tem por objetivo analisar a proposta de razão pública de Rawls, dentro do contexto de sua teoria da justiça como equidade, propondo-se a verificar se o pensamento rawlsiano procede no contexto jurídico-filosófico da pós-modernidade e se a sua teoria pode ser concretamente aplicada aos ordenamentos jurídicos contemporâneos, em especial no que tange ao conteúdo e pleno exercício da liberdade religiosa pelos cidadãos de um estado constitucional democrático. / In 1993 John Rawls, a notable American philosopher and professor of the distinguished Harvard University, published his Political Liberalism, a book that presents for the first time Rawlss idea of public reason, a key concept of his theory of justice. To Rawls public reason is fundamentally the proper form and content of public debate, as well as the justification of essential decisions of basic justice in a constitutional democracy. In this sense, Rawls claim that the only reasonable justification for state coercion lays on an overlapping consensus regarding the essential choices of a democratic society, which is possible only if public and private actors surpass their own personal moral or philosophical comprehensive doctrines when engaging in public debate of such essential decisions of basic justice. This dissertation thesis aims to verify the rawlsian proposal of public reason in the context of justice as fairness, reflecting whether Rawls proposal fits a post-modern juridical and philosophical reality. The work also aims to analyze if Rawls theory can be effectively applied to modern constitutional states, especially regarding the content and exercise of religious freedom by the citizens of a democratic constitutional state.

John Rawls conceives society as a cooperation system. To govern this system, he developed the theory of justice as fairness (JAF). His theory, from its emergence in the early 1970s to the present, has been commonly associated with public policies called affirmative action (AFs). Despite this association, there are two relevant situations that deserve analysis and lead us to our research problem: Rawls never wrote directly about affirmative action, despite the large extent of his work; and there are arguments supporting the incompatibility between the JAF and the AFs. In view of that, this paper deals with the following problem: is there incompatibility between the theory of justice as fairness and affirmative action? Our hypotheses are: (i) that affirmative action is not provided for in the JAF and, in general, cannot be simply derived from that theory; and (ii) that, despite this, there is no incompatibility between the JAF and the AFs. The broader objective of this paper, besides the specific objective of responding to the research problem, will be to demonstrate that there is no room for simplistic associations between the JAF and the AFs, as there are relevant arguments that must be faced by those who wish to study the subject - either to defend the AFs or not - especially those arguments concerning Rawls's distinction between ideal theory and non-ideal theory. In the first chapter, basic concepts will be presented for the general understanding of the theory of justice as fairness. In the second chapter, after exposing the concept and taxonomy of affirmative action, some of Rawls's arguments that found JAF's two principles of justice will be analyzed in order to verify if such arguments present any incompatibility with affirmative action. Next, an analysis of the validity of some objections made by Robert Taylor in the paper Rawlsian Affirmative Action will be done, where Taylor argues that certain categories of affirmative action are incompatible with the JAF in the scenarios of ideal theory and non-ideal theory. Ultimately, conclusions will be drawn, in the sense that: (i) affirmative action is not foreseen in the JAF and cannot be simply derived from it; (ii) that the arguments of possible incompatibility analyzed here are invalid; and (iii) that, apart from the existence of other arguments not studied here, such public policies are not incompatible with the theory of justice as fairness. / John Rawls concebe a sociedade como um sistema de cooperação. Para reger esse sistema, desenvolveu a teoria da justiça como equidade (TJE). Sua teoria, do surgimento no início da década de 1970 até hoje em dia, tem sido comumente associada às políticas públicas denominadas ações afirmativas (AFs). Apesar dessa associação, há duas situações relevantes que merecem análise e nos levam ao nosso problema de pesquisa: Rawls nunca escreveu sobre ações afirmativas diretamente, apesar da grande extensão de sua obra; e existem argumentos sustentando a incompatibilidade entre a TJE e as AFs. Diante disso, o presente trabalho enfrentará o seguinte problema: existe incompatibilidade entre a teoria da justiça como equidade e as ações afirmativas? Nossas hipóteses são: (i) que as ações afirmativas não estão previstas na TJE e, em geral, não podem ser simplesmente derivadas daquela teoria; e (ii) que, apesar disso, não há incompatibilidade entre a TJE e as AFs. O objetivo mais amplo do trabalho, para além do objetivo específico de responder ao problema de pesquisa, será demonstrar que não há espaço para associações paroquiais entre a TJE e as AFs, pois há argumentos relevantes que devem ser enfrentados por quem pretender estudar o tema – seja para defender as AFs ou não –, sobretudo aqueles argumentos relativos à distinção de Rawls entre teoria ideal e teoria não-ideal. No primeiro capítulo, serão apresentados conceitos básicos para a compreensão geral da teoria da justiça como equidade. No segundo capítulo, após expor conceito e taxonomia das ações afirmativas, serão analisados alguns dos argumentos de Rawls que fundamentam os dois princípios de justiça da TJE, para verificar se tais argumentos apresentam alguma incompatibilidade com as ações afirmativas, e a seguir será analisada a validade de algumas objeções feitas por Robert Taylor no artigo Ações Afirmativas Rawlsianas, sustentando que determinadas categorias de ações afirmativas são incompatíveis com a TJE, nos cenários da teoria ideal e da teoria não-ideal. Ao final, serão expostas conclusões, no sentido de que: (i) as ações afirmativas não estão previstas na TJE e não podem ser simplesmente derivadas dela; (ii) que os argumentos de possível incompatibilidade, aqui analisados, são inválidos; e (iii) que, ressalvada a existência de outros argumentos aqui não estudados, tais políticas públicas não são incompatíveis com a teoria da justiça como equidade.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-01T19:18:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 120972.pdf: 5507462 bytes, checksum: 0d6a83a52fa423046c4cb904dd9865ca (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-11-28 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Florianopolis is the capital with greater Municipal Human Development Index (IDHM) of Brazil and its public health system stands for coverage of primary care. Nevertheless, the municipality maintains serious iniquities and the expansion of the occurrence of chronic diseases and external causes, such as the violence of transit. This thesis has tried to develop a model which would aid in the implementation of actions intersetorias necessary to cope with these issues. For both, the author, who is the Director of Health Surveillance of capital, used the experience gained in the implementation of Rede Vida no Trânsito in Florianópolis, which is used as a template for the pacification of traffic in the city and as a pilot-project for the development of knowledge about intersectoral actions. What we observed is that the models used by the Rede Vida no Trânsito, which is the Strategy of Pro- Activity and Partnership and the model of Networks of Organizations, despite assist in the development of intersectoral actions, still lacked an elucidation ethicalmoral that is guided its use and the complementation of theories to reconcile customer technical and policy, assisting in attaining the objectives selected. To overcome these shortcomings, we developed a concept of emancipation as proposed ethical-moral, which could guide the intersectoral actions, and a concept of governance, which stimulate the emancipation. The concept of governance to the emancipation was, then, associated with Science for the Government, by Carlos Matus, aimed at strengthening technopolitical; finally, all of this was reconciled with the strengths observed in the use of the Strategy of Pró-Activity and Partnership and the model of Network Organizations. The result has been a model of governance for the emancipation. This should assist in coping with complex problems such as iniquity, where intersectoral actions are fundamental. / Florianópolis é a capital com maior Índice de Desenvolvimento Humano Municipal (IDHM) do Brasil e seu sistema público de saúde destaca-se pela cobertura de atenção primária. Apesar disso, o município mantém graves iniquidades e a expansão da ocorrência de doenças crônicas e causas externas, como a violência do trânsito. Esta dissertação buscou desenvolver um modelo que auxiliasse na implantação de ações intersetorias necessárias ao enfrentamento destas questões. Para tanto, o autor, que é Diretor de Vigilância em Saúde da capital, utilizou a experiência de implantação da Rede Vida no Trânsito em Florianópolis, que é utilizada como modelo para pacificação do trânsito no município e como piloto para o desenvolvimento de conhecimentos acerca de ações intersetoriais. O que se observou é que os modelos utilizados pela Rede Vida no Trânsito, que são a Estratégia de Pró- Atividade e Parceria e o modelo de Redes de Organizações, apesar de auxiliarem no desenvolvimento das ações intersetoriais, ainda careciam de uma elucidação ético-moral que norteasse sua utilização e da complementação de teorias que conciliassem técnica e política, auxiliando na consecução dos objetivos selecionados. Para suprir estas deficiências, desenvolveu-se um conceito de emancipação como proposta ético-moral, que pudesse nortear as ações intersetoriais, e um conceito de governança, que estimulasse a emancipação. O conceito de governança para a emancipação foi, então, associado à Ciência para o Governo, de Carlos Matus, visando ao fortalecimento tecnopolítico; por fim, tudo isto foi conciliado com os pontos fortes observados na utilização da Estratégia de Pró-Atividade e Parceria e do modelo de Organizações em Rede. O resultado apresentado foi um modelo de governança para a emancipação. Este deverá auxiliar no enfrentamento de problemas complexos como a iniquidade, onde ações intersetoriais são fundamentais.

Em 1993, John Rawls, notável filósofo e professor da distinta Harvard University, publicou seu Political Liberalism, um livro em que pela primeira vez sintetiza sistematicamente o conceito de razão pública, uma ideia chave de sua teoria da justiça como equidade (justice as fairness). Segundo Rawls, a razão pública consiste fundamentalmente no modo e conteúdo adequados ao debate e à fundamentação de escolhas essenciais de justiça no espaço público de uma democracia constitucional. Nesse sentido, Rawls advoga que o único meio razoável de justificação da coerção estatal reside no reconhecimento e/ou obtenção de consensos (overlapping consensus) em relação às escolhas essenciais de uma sociedade democrática, o que só é possível se atores públicos e privados se despojarem de suas respectivas doutrinas filosóficas ou morais abrangentes ao debater e decidir tais questões essenciais de justiça. A presente dissertação tem por objetivo analisar a proposta de razão pública de Rawls, dentro do contexto de sua teoria da justiça como equidade, propondo-se a verificar se o pensamento rawlsiano procede no contexto jurídico-filosófico da pós-modernidade e se a sua teoria pode ser concretamente aplicada aos ordenamentos jurídicos contemporâneos, em especial no que tange ao conteúdo e pleno exercício da liberdade religiosa pelos cidadãos de um estado constitucional democrático. / In 1993 John Rawls, a notable American philosopher and professor of the distinguished Harvard University, published his Political Liberalism, a book that presents for the first time Rawlss idea of public reason, a key concept of his theory of justice. To Rawls public reason is fundamentally the proper form and content of public debate, as well as the justification of essential decisions of basic justice in a constitutional democracy. In this sense, Rawls claim that the only reasonable justification for state coercion lays on an overlapping consensus regarding the essential choices of a democratic society, which is possible only if public and private actors surpass their own personal moral or philosophical comprehensive doctrines when engaging in public debate of such essential decisions of basic justice. This dissertation thesis aims to verify the rawlsian proposal of public reason in the context of justice as fairness, reflecting whether Rawls proposal fits a post-modern juridical and philosophical reality. The work also aims to analyze if Rawls theory can be effectively applied to modern constitutional states, especially regarding the content and exercise of religious freedom by the citizens of a democratic constitutional state.

The advent of experimental methodologies have led to decisive progress in the study of corrupt behaviour in the last two decades. Since they can complement survey data and perception indexes with controlled experimental data, scholars and policy makers have reached a better understanding of decision-making in bribery situations and are able to design innovative anticorruption policies.In this thesis, I use experimental and empirical data to contribute to the field of the economics of corruption. The first two chapters of this PhD dissertation use experimental methodologies to study decision-making in a bribery scenario. The first chapter tests an anti-corruption strategy with a lab in the field experiment in Burundi. The second chapter studies the fairness concerns that might arise when dealing with redistribution in a bribery situation. The third chapter uses an empirical analysis to explore the controversial issue of political moonlighting, i.e. having outside activities while holding public office. It investigates "double-hat politicians", who combine mayor and parliamentary positions in Wallonia.In a first chapter, written with Jean-Benoit Falisse, we explore the effect of anti- corruption messages on corrupt behavior and public service delivery. In a novel lab-in-the-field experiment, 527 public servants from Burundi were asked to allocate rationed vouchers between anonymous citizens; some of these citizens attempted to bribe the public servants to obtain more vouchers than they were entitled to. Two groups of public servants were randomly exposed to short messages about good governance or professional identity reminders. Participants in these two groups behaved in a fairer manner than those of a third group who were not exposed to any message. The result is more robust in the case of the group exposed to the professional identity reminder. The underlying mechanisms seem to be that when a public servant reflects upon governance values and her professional identity, the moral cost increases, prompting more equal service delivery. Bribe-taking was not impacted by the messages. The experiment provides new insights into the design of anti-corruption strategies.The second chapter, written with Lena Epp, investigates the impact of a public officials’ fairness considerations towards citizens in a petty corruption situation. Other-regarding preferences, and, more particularly, fairness concerns are widely acknowledged as crucial elements of individual economic decision-making. In petty corruption contexts, public officials are to a large extent aware of differences between citizens. Here, we experimentally investigate how fairness considerations may impact on corrupt behaviour. Our novel bribery game reveals that bribes are less frequently accepted when bribers are unequal in terms of endowments. These results suggest that fairness considerations can influence corrupt behaviour.In the last chapter, I focus on political moonlighting in Wallonia. Activities outside of public office or combining specific public offices simultaneously is a topic of ongoing heated debates. An element crucial to these discussions is whether moonlighting is detrimental for politicians’ performance. In Belgium, the combination of local executive and regional legislative offices, i.e. double hat politicians, is a frequent habit for a majority of politicians. This accumulation of activities might lead to (un-)desirable outcomes in terms of political achievements. This chapter investigates the impact of holding several remunerated and honorary positions on regional MPs parliamentary activities and mayor’s municipality performance in Wallonia. I use a database of all public and private positions held by Belgian politicians in Wallonia since the disclosure of positions became compulsory for those holding at least one public position, i.e. from 2004 to 2016. For members of Parliament, wearing a double hat reduces global parliamentary activity. For mayors, it seems that holding more remunerated positions is associated with less efficient municipality management. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Nous nous intéressons dans cette thèse à la problématique de la décision collective. L’objectif est de déterminer une solution de compromis pour des problèmes soumis à de multiples points de vue. Les problèmes considérés sont de nature combinatoire. Plus précisément, il s’agit de la classe des systèmes d’ensembles qui ont une structure de matroïde. La théorie des matroïdes est centrale en optimisation combinatoire, elle a permis d’unifier des structures apparemment séparées comme les arbres et les couplages dans les graphes et elle a engendré des algorithmes efficaces pour résoudre des problèmes d’optimisation non triviaux en temps polynomial. Nous nous intéressons à fournir des algorithmes d’approximation polynomiaux centralisés et décentralisés avec garantie de performance pour déterminer une solution de compromis qui est une base du matroïde. La solution de compromis doit également être équitable pour tous les membres de la collectivité. Nous portons un intérêt particulier au problème de partage équitable de biens indivisibles qui est une thématique importante en choix social computationnel et dont le problème se modélise par les matroïdes. / In this thesis, we are interested in collective decision-making. The objective is to find a tradeoff solution for problems that are evaluated by multiple points of view. We consider problems having a matroid structure. Matroid theory is significant in combinatorial optimization, it helped to unify apparently separated structures like forests and matchings in graphs and it includes efficient algorithms for solving non-trivial optimization problems in polynomial time. We are interested to provide polynomial time centralized and decentralized approximation algorithms for finding a tradeoff solution which is a base of the matroid. The tradeoff solution must also be fair for all the members of the community. We are particularly interested in the issue of the fair division of indivisible goods which is central in computational social choice and that can be modeled by matroids.

L’Institut National des Produits Chimiques de l’Académie des Sciences du Vietnam (INPC) développe depuis plusieurs années une activité autour de la recherche de nouveaux médicaments issus de la biodiversité. Le développement d’un nouveau médicament prend de l’ordre d’une dizaine d’années et passe par plusieurs phases. Dans la phase de découverte, l’activité des composés chimiques sur une cible biologique est mesurée afin de mettre en évidence une action inhibitrice. Le développement d’approches in silico pour le criblage virtuel des composés chimiques est une alternative aux approches classiques in vitro beaucoup plus coûteuses à mettre en œuvre. L’utilisation de la grille a été identifiée comme une voie économiquement prometteuse pour accompagner la recherche de nouveaux médicaments au Vietnam. En effet, le développement de nouvelles stratégies basées sur l’utilisation de plates-formes de soumission de tâches (DIRAC, HTCaaS) a permis d’améliorer considérablement le taux de succès et le confort des utilisateurs, ouvrant la voie à une démocratisation de la grille.Dans ce contexte, l’objectif poursuivi dans le cadre de cette thèse est d’étudier dans quelle mesure des plates-formes multidisciplinaires pouvaient répondre aux besoins des chimistes de l’INPC. Le travail s’est concentré sur les modalités d’un partage équitable d’une plate-forme de soumission de tâches sur la grille par une ou plusieurs communautés d’utilisateurs. L’ordonnancement des tâches sur un serveur commun doit permettre que les différents groupes aient une expérience positive et comparable. Sur les infrastructures de grille EGEE et EGI en Europe , on peut distinguer deux grandes catégories d’utilisateurs : les utilisateurs « normaux » qui vont solliciter les ressources pour des tâches requérant typiquement de quelques dizaines à quelques centaines d’heures de calcul, et les « gros » utilisateurs qui vont lancer des grandes productions nécessitant le traitement de plusieurs milliers de tâches pendant des dizaines, voire des centaines de milliers d’heures de calcul. Les stratégies d’ordonnancement déployées aujourd’hui sur les plates-formes comme DIRAC ou HTCaaS ne permettent pas de servir de façon optimale et simultanée ces deux familles d’utilisateurs.Le manuscrit présente une évaluation par simulation des performances de plusieurs stratégies d’ordonnancement des tâches d’une plate-forme soumettant des jobs pilotes. L’outil SimGrid a permis de simuler l’infrastructure de grille régionale déployée en Auvergne à partir de traces archivées de son utilisation. Après évaluation des performances de plusieurs politiques d’ordonnancement tirées de la littérature, une nouvelle politique a été proposée dans laquelle les utilisateurs normaux et les très gros utilisateurs sont gérés de façon indépendante. Grâce à cette politique, le ralentissement expérimenté par les très gros utilisateurs est réduit significativement sans pénaliser excessivement les utilisateurs normaux. L’étude a été étendue à une fédération de clouds utilisant les mêmes ressources et arrive aux mêmes conclusions. Les performances des politiques d’ordonnancement ont ensuite été évaluées sur des environnements de production, à savoir l’infrastructure de grille européenne EGI et l’infrastructure nationale de supercalculateurs de la Corée du Sud. Un serveur DIRAC a été adossé aux ressources de l’organisation virtuelle biomédicale d’EGI pour étudier les ralentissements observés par les utilisateurs de ce serveur. Pareillement, les ralentissements expérimentés par les utilisateurs de la plate-forme HTCaaS au KISTI ont été observés en excellent accord avec les résultats de simulation avec SimGrid.Ces travaux confirment la faisabilité et l’intérêt d’une plate-forme unique au Vietnam au service des communautés scientifiques consommatrices des ressources académiques de grille et de cloud, notamment pour la recherche de nouveaux médicaments. / Virtual Screening (VS) is a computational technique used in the drug discovery process to select the most promising candidate drugs for in vitro testing from millions of chemical compounds. This method can offer an efficient alternative to reduce the cost of drug discovery and platform. The Natural Products Chemistry Institute of the Academy of Sciences of Vietnam (INPC) collects samples from local biodiversity and determines the 3D structure of single molecules. Their challenge is to set up a virtual screening platform on grid computing for their chemists to process their data. However, as the number of users who might have a wide range of virtual screening applications (in terms of the number of tasks and execution time) increases with limited available computing resources, it becomes crucial to devise an effective scheduling policy that can ensure a certain degree of fairness, user satisfaction and overall system throughput. In this context, the thesis focuses on an effective scheduling policy for the virtual screening workflow where multiple users with varying numbers of tasks are actively sharing a common system infrastructure. We have researched in theory and proposed some candidate policies. With the simulation results and the experimentation results in real system, we proposed the best policy for the fairness between users, which can be applied to INPC virtual screening platform.

Magister Administrationis - MAdmin / In an attempt to make South Africa a more just society after the first democratic elections on 27 April 1994, the South African society had to undergo a number of radical changes which impacted the social, economical, political and educational arena. These changes have influenced recruitment, retention and turnover. Changes at leadership levels in the private and public sphere coupled with a huge exodus of highly skilled professionals are evident as topics of equality and social justice appear at the top of company agendas. Many proponents have conducted research on organisational justice and the fact that more than twenty five thousand articles have been published on job satisfaction attest to the importance of these two variables on organisational performance. In an article examining past, present and future states of organisational justice it is argued that organisational justice has the potential to explain many organisational behavioural outcome variables. An investigation of the relationship between organisational justice perceptions and work behavior found job satisfaction to be made up of a large fairness component. The rationale behind the support for the study is the argument that employees who perceive that they have been fairly treated is likely to hold positive attitudes about their work, their work outcomes and their managers. If South African organisations wish to remain competitive then organisations need to understand how perceptions of justice influence attitudes and behaviour and consequently affect the success of the organisation. Agricultural Colleges, a division of the Department of Agriculture are no exception. The Agricultural Colleges' primary aim is to provide training to its prospective communities, and is continuously being evaluated in terms of how well its academic employees achieve its vision, mission and goals. It is evident from responses to job advertisements, low morale and high turnover that most of the academic employees in Agricultural Colleges are dissatisfied with their jobs, pay, management and the institutions based on their current salary. Attracting, recruiting and retraining highly skilled, internationally marketable and mobile employees are critical factors in determining the present and future success in agricultural training in South Africa. Limited research to examine the effects of organisational justice on organisational outcomes in an environment where the workforce consists of academics is the gap this research attempts to fill. This study is designed to assess the impact of organisational justice on job satisfaction of academic employees in agricultural colleges in South Africa. Also, to determine whether biographical values influence the relationship between organisational justice and job satisfaction. / South Africa

Magister Legum - LLM / In this mini-thesis, I will present a historical development of the manner in which South African courts have tested the fairness of dismissals, for misconduct. South African Labour history has been marred by confusion and inconsistency in relation to the test to be adopted in determining the fairness of dismissals. This has been so, because there have been two dominant schools of thought, one referred to as the ‘own opinion’ approach, whereby the commissioner/court has the discretion to express his/her own view based upon value judgments on the fairness of the dismissal. The other approach is known as the reasonable employer test ( ‘ defer to the employer’ approach), whereby the commissioner had to defer to the decision of the employer, unless the dismissal is one that no reasonable employer would impose, or is so excessive that it would shock one’s sense of fairness, then the commissioner may interfere.This thesis will reveal the inconsistency that has been caused, by these two approaches, and the South African courts dissent as to the approach consistent with our law. This dissent, as shall be shown in this thesis, has led to our courts contradicting themselves as to the test consistent with the law.There will be a critical discussion on the source of the reasonable employer test and its application in South Africa during the Labour Relations Act 28 of 1956 ( old LRA ) and the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 ( new LRA). With a further discourse on the development of the ‘own opinion’ approach during the periods of both the old LRA and the new LRA.This will lead to me looking at the provisions of the South African Constitution, together with the meaning of the right to fair labour practice as provided in the Constitution. Based upon a critical analysis of past jurisprudence, the provisions of the ILO Convention, the provisions of the old LRA and new LRA, foreign law and the Constitutional imperatives, I will attempt to illustrate the approach most consistent with our law.This thesis will culminate with a critical analysis of the Supreme Court of Appeal’s judgment, in the case of Rustenburg Platinum Mines Ltd vs Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and the ruling of the Constitutional court in Sidumo and Another v Rustenburg Platinum Mines Ltd and Others.The purpose of providing this historical journey, is to further highlight the rulings of past judgments, that have developed the concept of fairness, as was consistent with the Constitution. It is envisaged that the body of judgments cited in this thesis, may be used as authority, whenever the issue of determining the fairness of dismissal for misconduct arises, before a court or tribunal, such as the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration(CCMA). It is may further be used by employers and employees, in obtaining clarity of the law in relation to the test for fairness of dismissals for misconduct.