The implementation of an affirmative action strategy in a large South African organisation

Abstract

South Africa is in the process of change. This changes taking place in South Africa at present have influenced all people in some other way. These people come from different cultures, each with its own background, beliefs and values. South Africa is a new nation, focusing especially on a non-racial, non-sexist democracy with equal representation on all levels. Therefore the authors of the new Labour Relations Act found it expedient to introduce the concept of affirmative action in the legislation as an effort to bring about industrial democracy at the workplace. Viewpoints on the issue of affirmative action are highly divergent, especially in a deeply divided society such as South Africa. Nevertheless, various factors can contribute towards the implementation of affirmative action strategy and the successful management of change and the resistance towards it. Consequently, it is the management's responsibility to monitor the effect of change and affirmative action in order to bring about possible solutions to manage the impacts, so as to ensure the effective and peaceful growth of the company. It is a well-known fact that all employees (i.e. from top management to shop floor workers) of any organisation is directly or indirectly influenced by change. There is a high possibility that some of those employees might resist change due to past experiences, negative attitudes, uncertainty of the unknown etc. On the other hand others might accept change because they might benefit a lot from it and have high expectations, because of this resistance the relationship between employer and employees (industrial relations) is negatively influenced. The following might result in lack of trust, lack of respect, poor performance, early retirements, lack of acceptance, labour turnover and hostility. In turn affirmative action is perceived as a reverse discrimination by other groups within the organisation. Hence the researcher believes that South Africa must find its own solutions and create its own future, one of equality and representation so that everyone will be satisfied at the end of the day. The main objective of the research is to study the concept of affirmative action and to explore various strategies that could be used to implement the concept so that it benefits both the employer and the employee. THE SECONDARY AIMS OF THIS STUDY CAN BE SUMMARISED AS FOLLOWS: *To analyse affirmative action *To determine the impact of affirmative action as a means of change on the organisation *To find out the attitude of different stakeholders (i.e. top management, middle line management, supervisors, unionised and non-unionised shop floor workers), with regard to affirmative action *To find out ways in which stakeholders can adapt to change *To determine the effective and ineffective implementation methods of affirmative action *To find out the failures and successes of affirmative action RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The research is divided into two parts, namely literature review and empirical research A theoretical orientation was done mainly focusing on affirmative action within a large South African organisation. Too much emphasis was placed on the implementation of change. This was followed by an empirical study within the already mentioned organisation. In the empirical survey, a questionnaire was developed using the information gathered from a literature review. Initially the questionnaire was presented to the study leader and validity of questionnaire was determined and statistical techniques used were also identified. The researcher used unstructured/informal personal interviews in the process of distributing and collecting questionnaire for the accumulation of data. MAJOR FINDINGS Some of the core findings are listed below A tremendous 97,97% of respondents on all levels admit to have some knowledge of affirmative action. Even though change seems to be resisted by most groups, about 61,22% of both males and females found changes to be acceptable in their departments. With regard to the management of change about 41% of age group of 30 to 39 years as compared to others, said change should definitely be managed. A remarkable 97,95% of respondents in standard 9 to 10 believes that without a doubt resistance to change need to be managed whereas only 2,05% in standard 6 to 8 agrees with that. In total about 54,6194 of respondents from different tertiary institutions gave affirmative action a meaning of equal opportunity. On the other hand 45,39% defined the concept as correcting past wrongs. As the researcher initially mentioned different meanings of affirmative action are given by various people. It all depends on an individual understanding of the term itself. The majority of Asian/Indian respondents (71,88%) concur that affirmative action is applied in Company X as compared to the Tswana (2,67%). About 97,96% of respondents with knowledge of affirmative action agrees that development programmes are equally available to all staff whereas 2,04% disagree. Some of the successes of affirmative action are the following: 1. Good communication 2. Appointing skilled people for positions 3. Commitment of top management The following are the failures of affirmative action as per various respondents: 1 . Poor communication 2. Lack of monitors 3. No equal employment opportunities 4. Lack of trust 5. Unrealistic fears of the unknown CONCLUSION The implementation of the affirmative action brought about some negative impacts on the existing groups within organisations. This is one of the factors that hampers the employer-employee relationship. These are the reasons why industrial Relations Practitioners must be part of the planning and implementation phases of an organisation going through change. This will be one of the major drivers in bringing about the success of affirmative action from the empirical study at large it is obvious that the majority of employees on different levels are beginning to adapt to affirmative action as a means of change even though some minority still resist it. This answers the researcher's question on whether affirmative action is the solution for future organisations. But it will only be a solution if there is explicit commitment from top management to the implementation of the affirmative action process. It is imperative that top management are seen to "champion" the process and that they consistently monitor, evaluate and insist on progress towards the agreed-upon objectives and standards. Line managers should also be made accountable for the development of the organisation's human resources department function are over. Therefore positive affirmative action strategy will prevail and benefit everyone equally.