At the edge of the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Employees’ perceptions of employment equity from a CIBART perspective

Abstract

Orientation: In accordance with global trends, South Africa is striving for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Discourses of employees’ employment equity (EE) perceptions within the 4IR context are studied 25 years after apartheid.Research purpose: The purpose of the study was to understand the systems psychodynamics underneath the surface of employees’ perceptions of EE in South Africa within the context of the 4IR.Motivation for the study: South African workplaces are debated nationally and urged to compete with 4IR changes on a global level. This research focuses on employees’ perceptions of EE underneath the surface and aims at understanding employees’ perceptions through the conflict, identity, boundaries, authority, roles, task (CIBART) model.Research approach/design and method: Altogether 83 employees in 11 organisations in South Africa participated in qualitative interviews regarding their perceptions and experiences within their changing work contexts.Main findings: The findings indicate employees’ perceptions of EE in terms of conflict, identity, boundary, authority, roles and tasks of the CIBART model. The discourses highlight EE, race and gender within contemporary South Africa, and show a lack of drive to engage with the discourses of the 4IR on a global level.Practical/managerial implications: The findings show that employees and organisations in South Africa need to open up their internal discourses anchored in the country’s past to become key players in the 4IR; apartheid categories need to be overcome to develop context-specific visions and original ideas on how to create 4IR workspaces in the future.Contribution/value-add: This article emphasises the gap between national discourses and global trends in employees’ perceptions of EE and discusses transformational ideas from after apartheid to 4IR visions.

Employment Equity Realisation: Assessing the Bridges and Barriers in the eThekwini Municipality of South Africa

“…Budget sufficiency becomes crucial to reach and extend the employment equity crusade to the far-reach rural designated dwellers who are more positioned for employment equity (Geldenhuys, 2020). Empowering women through leadership development, short course training and human capital development are important programmes through which the social and cultural discriminatory practices on women can be addressed for employment equity sake (Oosthuizen & Meyer, 2019). Findings show three distinct factors constraining employment equity targets in the municipality including sparsity of scarce skills recruitment and retention from the South African labour market to fill employment equity gaps, poor clarity and commitment to the ethos and policy guidelines of employment equity and political leadership and corruption.…”

“…Other change management programmes include the importance of effective human resources practices for the effective realisation of employment equity. For Oosthuizen & Meyer (2019), line mangers accountability, internal recruitment practices that support objective employment equity, recruitment related to the designated groups, objective and non-discriminatory recruitment exercise through fair and unbiased advertisement and a clear focus on training and development are crucial human resource change programmes that can promote employment equity on all fronts. This argument advances the role of the organisation in ensuring compliance are monitored for a possible employment equity (Porter & Heppelmann, 2015).…”

Unconscious system-psychodynamics within a German 4IR engineering company in South Africa

“…The managers are aware that new identities are forming within the transformational era which are higher in complexity and which need to integrate splits and controversial viewpoints in terms of socio-economical, technological and political systems ( Hayden and Molenkamp, 2004 ; Oosthuizen and Mayer, 2019 ). Findings show further that managers experience boundary shifts which impact on the identity formation and which clusters employees in new segments regarding generations (technology-versatile and non-technology-versatile generations), educational and skill boundaries (highly qualified and lowly/not qualified), geo-economic and political boundaries (global and African-orientated) and emotional (positive and negative emotions) boundaries.…”

“…Identity alludes to the integration of the above—the system’s uniqueness through its mental characteristics ( Campbell and Groenbaek, 2006 ). Typically, the nature of the leader’s role-behavior and the branding, climate and culture of the hierarchical system relates to identity ( Oosthuizen and Mayer, 2019 ).…”

The Impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution on Managers’ Sense of Coherence

“…Furthermore, in South Africa, the 4IR has brought in new employment equity (EE) practices that will govern the effects of this revolution [ 26 ]. Oosthuizen and Mayer [ 27 ] (p. 2) state that as “job mobility, consent retraining and rotation” are necessary to improve managers’ flexibility, employability and suitability in today’s world of work, an adaptation to EE is necessary to address the changing work environment. According to Min et al [ 25 ], government policies should also be adapted to protect the health rights of managers who are faced with increased atypical employment due to the 4IR, currently some managers are not protected by the labor laws [ 25 ].…”