A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of tho Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, for the Degree of Mastel' of Arts.
Johannesburg 1991 / The industrial supervisor is the classical example of the person in the middle or
the 'marginal person' Placed between management and the workforce,
supervisors encounter conflicting expectations and demands. For the black
supervisor in South African industry, these problems are exacerbated, typically
having been promoted from the ranks and operating at an essentially white
management, black workforce interface. Previous researchers have discussed the
dysfunctional consequences faced by these people and, further, have alluded to the
possible relationship between this and supervisors' dual loyaltles. This research
examines the marginality of black supervisors and how this relates to their possible
dual commitment. Towards this end, a psychometrically sound measure of
psychological marginality was constructed, following which an empirical
investigation was undertaken to investigate the relationship between black
supervisors' psychological marginality and their dual allegiances. Factor
analytical techniques revealed that black supervisor's marginality comprises two
variables; namely, management marginality and worker marginality. The
relationships between both marginality variables and levels of organisational
commitment, union commitment and dual commitment were not significant. This
suggests that the management and worker marginality experienced among black
supervisors is not related to dual commitment, unilateral commitment and
alienation. Implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed and
directions for future research provided. The primary shortcoming of the study
was small sample sizes as a result of the sensitive nature of the subject. However,
this was mediated by the rigorous methodology adopted throughout.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/20660 |
| Date | 18 July 2016 |
| Creators | Bergman, Rodney Nathan |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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