Perceptions of Workplace Issues among Blue-Collar Workers in South Africa's Gauteng Province

Abstract

While research on the workplace attitudes, expectations and perceptions of white-collar workers has flourished over the past decades, there has been considerably less progress on establishing the concomitant contemporary perceptions of blue-collar workers. Within the South African context, this is a substantial gap in understanding. This article therefore reports the results of an exploratory qualitative study of the workplace perceptions, expectations and attitudes of some 300 South African blue-collar workers in the Gauteng region, using a critical incidents technique. Pay issues, humanity and support were found to be the foremost themes in workers' stories with regard to organisational obligations. Common themes regarding employee obligations included adequate work performance, care and protection of the employer's property, maintaining good work relationships and keeping to designated work hours. Compensation-specific issues focused on pay rises and bonuses, while equity and benefits issues were unexpectedly absent. Also absent were stories regarding development, family and HIV/AIDS.

Keywords

blue-collar workers compensation labour labour relations workplace perceptions work relationships

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bendix

(2004). Industrial relations in South Africa (4th ed. Revised). Cape Town: Juta.

Berg

B. L.

(2001). Qualitative research methods for the social sciences (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Blignaut

J. J.

(1995). 'n Ondersoek na werkstres tussen geletterde en semi-geletterde swart werknemers (An investigation into the work stress between literate and semi-literate black employees). Unpublished B.P.L. Honours dissertation, University of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein.

Cooper

D. R.

Schindler

P. S.

(2003). Business research methods. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Cooper

C. L.

Smith

M. J.

(1985). Job stress and blue collar work. Chichester: John Wiley.

Deaux

Ullman

J. C.

(1983). Women of steel: Female blue collar workers in the basic steel industry. New York: Praeger.

Flanagan

J. C.

(1954). The critical incident technique. Psychological Bulletin, 51, 327–358.

Fényes

T. I.

Lalthpersad

(2000). The casualization of black female labour in South Africa. South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences, 3 (2), 165–188.

Greene

W. H.

(2003). Econometric analysis (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education International.

10.

Herriot

Manning

W. E. G.

Kidd

J. M.

(1997). The content of the psychological contract. British Journal of Management, 8, 151–162.

11.

Hipkin

(2000). Managerial and worker perceptions of the workplace: A case of South African agriculture. South African Journal of Labour Relations, 24(2), 4–22.

12.

Keeley

A. L.

(1999). Factors affecting the motivation of blue collar workers in the mining industry. MBA Research Report, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

13.

Khoza

(1993). The need for an Afrocentric management approach: A South African management approach. In Christie

Lessem

Mbigi

(Eds.), African management: Philosophies, concepts and applications (pp. 117–124). Randburg: Knowledge Resources.

14.

Kidwell

R. E.

Bennett

(1993). Employee propensity to withhold effort: A conceptual model to intersect three avenues of research. Academy of Management Review, 18 (3), 429–456.

15.

Kraak

(1993). Breaking the chains, labour in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. Pluto Press: London.

16.

Lee

G. J.

(2003). The 2003 Kelly Human Capital Satisfaction Survey. Johannesburg: Kelly.

17.

Maller

(1989). Employee share ownership: Co-option or co-operation. In Moss

Obery

(Eds.). South African Review 5 (pp. 348–356), Johannesburg: Ravan Press.

18.

Moerdyk

A. P.

(1983). Black advancement and stress: A literature review and conceptual synthesis. Johannesburg: National Institute for Personnel research.

19.

Shostak

(1980). Blue-collar stress. Reading Massachusetts: Addison Wesley.

20.

Smallegan

(1989). Level of depressive symptoms and life stressors for culturally diverse older adults. The Gerontologist, 29(1), 45–51.

21.

Statistics South Africa (2003). Earning & spending in South Africa. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa.

22.

Statistics South Africa. (2002). South African statistics. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa.

23.

Statistics South Africa. (2004). Labour force survey. Pretoria: Statistics South Africa.

24.

Steyn

Kotze

(2004). Work value change in South Africa between 1995 and 2000: Race, gender and occupations compared. South African Journal of Labour Relations, 28, 4–5.

25.

Trevor

C. O.

(2001). Interactions among actual ease-of-movement determinants and job satisfaction in the prediction of voluntary turnover. Academy of Management Journal, 44(4), 621–638.

26.

van Zyl

E. S.

(1996). The experience of stress in a group of lower level black and white employees involved in manual tasks. South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences, 18, 118–133.

27.

van Zyl

E. S.

van der Walt

H. S.

(1991). Handleiding vir die Ervaring van Werk- en Lewensomstandighede Vraelys (Manual for the experience of Work and Life Circumstances Questionnaire). Pretoria: Human Sciences Research Council.

28.

Venter

(Ed.) (2003). Labour relations in South Africa. Oxford University Press: Cape Town.

29.

Watts

J. C.

(1986). Black managers and their work colleagues in selected industrial organizations in Natal. Unpublished D.Phil thesis, University of Natal, Durban.

30.

Webster

Alfred

Bethlehem

Joffee

Selikow

T. A.

(1994). Work and industrialisation in South Africa: An introductory reader. Randburg: Raven Press.

31.

Webster

Alfred

Bethlehem

Joffee

Selikow

T. A.

(1999). Race, labour process and transition: The sociology of work in South Africa. Society in Transition, 30 (1), 28–42.