South Africa's business environment is changing dramatically. Companies are continuously
placed under pressure to reform. Government introduced clear guidelines in the form of
transformation strategies to assist companies in moving towards a more democratic, non-racial
and fully representative organisational structure. The two major strategies are coined
Black Economic Empowerment and Affirmative Action. The aim of the strategies is to
empower and uplift the previously disadvantaged communities of the Apartheid era. These
communities include black people; who consist of Africans, Coloureds and Indians; women
and disabled individuals. However, these strategies are perceived with mixed emotions.
A sense of negativity is evident within the attitudes of all race groups. This may give rise to a
new problem in the workplace: pessimism. Pessimism is associated with undesirable
characteristics such as external, unstable and specific explanations for bad things and has
emotional links to depression. Pessimists view problems as long lasting and inescapable, and
tend to blame all misfortunes on their own ineptness and incompetence. On the other hand,
optimism is associated with characteristics such as positive mood and good morale,
happiness, perseverance and effective problem solving, achievement and health and even a
long life and freedom from trauma. It is characterised by internal, stable and global
explanations for bad things.
A cross-sectional design with an availability sample (N 68) of junior and middle
management workers working in a multinational industry was used. Nonprobability
purposive sampling was applied in the selection of the study population.
The results indicated that males experience more dispositional pessimism than women. Black
employees also experienced more dispositional pessimism and optimism than white
employees, and employees who attended Affirmative Action induction programmes
displayed higher levels of optimism than those who have not attended such programmes.
If the tendency towards pessimism increases the result may have devastating effects on the
organisation as a whole. It is possible that performance will decline and organisational targets
will not be reached.
To address these issues organisations may need to change their structural planning in order to
utilise males more productively, and to enhance a sense of empowerment. Companies should
formulate clear goals with regard to what they want to gain from Affirmative Action
programmes. Programmes should also be constantly revised and continuing evaluations must
be carried out in order to track the effect of the programmes on the workforce.
Recommendations were made for future research. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/1705 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Van Schalkwyk, Heidi |
| Publisher | North-West University |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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