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Intra organisational perceptions of affirmative action

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of the Witwatersrand, 1999. / Recent developments in South Africa and the impending changes in the
workplace, have placed new challenges and demands on managers of
both big and small organisations. One of these challenges is the
introduction and implementation of successful Affirmative Action (AA)
programme. However, preparatory to this, it is important to gain an
understanding of the perceptions of employees concerning AA because
the way perceptions of employees may influence the manner in which
such programmes are implemented in companies.
The Employment Equity Act No. 55 (Republic of South Africa, 1998)
makes it clear that every designated employer must, in order to achieve
employment equity, implement AA measures.
A survey method was used in this study, and opinions were sought from
209 supervisors and junior managers at Eskom Head Office, Megawatt
Park. The results were analysed quantitatively in order to gain an
insight into their perceptions of issues concerning AA.
The results reveal that there are differences of opinion about AA
amongst the junior and middle management employees. The
differences are mainly racially based. There is no common
understanding of AA and this leads to a dysfunctional effort in the
implementation of this change. As resistance to change is a natural
behavior of organisations and its members, naturally AA can be
expected to be resisted by most employees. The present study
suggests ways to overcome this problem and identifies the need for
intervention to be undertaken concerning changing perceptions before
AA can be understood and successfully implemented .

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/15363
Date03 September 2014
CreatorsLeopeng, Selwalephuthi Peter
Source SetsSouth African National ETD Portal
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
Formatapplication/pdf

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