Abstract
Human resource management (HRM) is changing rapidly in the world of work. HRM is also changing rapidly in South Africa; however, South Africa is a unique and extraordinary example in many ways: based on South Africa’s extended history of segregation, the workplace situation at the micro, meso, and macro levels is still determined by the exclusion of and inequality towards people of different cultural groups and origins. For this reason, discourses on equality, diversity, and inclusion have become extremely relevant in organisations and contemporary South African society. This chapter presents insights into the state-of-the-art HRM practices in South Africa with special regard to diversity management and the management of evolving workplaces. It uses an intersectional, reflective HRM approach and presents empirical findings from a qualitative study conducted in the German-South African Engineering industry. The aim of this chapter is to provide insights into HRM practices in South Africa, the relevance of diversity management, and aspects of the creation of new work in contemporary and future workplaces.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acker, J. (2012). Gendered organisations and intersectionality: Problems and possibilities. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 31(3), 214–224.
Adamovic, M. (2018). An employee-focused human resource management perspective for the management of global virtual teams. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29(14), 2159–2187.
Alfes, K., Avgoustaki, A., Beauregard, T. A., Cañibano, A., & Muratbekova-Touron, M. (2019). New ways of working: Understanding the implications for employees across different cultural and organisational contexts, Special Issue Call for Papers, The International Journal of Human Resource Management. http://www.ihrm2020.org/content/special-issue-international-journal-human-resource-management
Antonelli, C. (2014). The economics of innovation, new technologies and structural change. Routledge.
BBBEE Commission. (2017). Strategy of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Commission. BBBEE Commission: Centurion, South Africa.
Bendix, S. (2010). Industrial relations in South Africa (5th ed.). Juta.
Bergmann, F. (2019). New work, new culture. Work we want and a culture that strengthens us. Zero Books.
Bouten-Pinto, C. (2016). Reflexivity in managing diversity: A pracademic perspective. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 35(2), 136–153.
Breetzke, G. D., & Hedding, D. W. (2016). The changing racial profile of academic staff at South African Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), 2005-2013. Africa Education Review, 13(2), 147–164.
Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Act 53 of 2003. (2003). Republic of South Africa.
Chetty, P. J. J., Coetzee, M. & Ferreira, N. (2016). Sources of job stress cognitive receptivity to change: The moderating role of job embeddedness. http://uir.unisa.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10500/21845/source%20of%20job%20stress%20and%20cognitive%20receptivity.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y
Clarke, S., & Hogget, P. (2009). Researching below the surface. Psycho-social research methods in practice. London.
Cloete, N., Bunting, I., & Maassen, P. (2015). Research universities in Africa: An empirical overview of eight flagship universities. In N. Cloete, P. Maassen, & T. Bailey (Eds.), Knowledge production and contradictory functions in African higher education (pp. 18–31). African Minds.
Cooke, F. L., Dickmann, M., & Parry, E. (2020). IJHRM after 30 years: Taking stock in times of COVID-19 and looking towards the future of HR research. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(1), 1–23.
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry & research: Choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). Sage Publications.
Davis, K. (2008). Intersectionality as buzzword: A sociology of science perspective on what makes a feminist theory successful. Feminist Theory, 9(1), 67–84.
Ebrahim, S. (2018). Reviewing the suitability of affirmative action and the inherent requirements of the job as grounds of justification to equal pay claims in terms of the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998. PER/PELJ, 21, 2–38. Retrieved August 28, 2018, from https://doi.org/10.17159/1727-3781/2018/v21i0a1367
Fernandez, S. (2016). The transformation of the South African Public Service: Exploring the impact of racial and gender representation on organisational effectiveness. Journal of Modern African Studies, 54(1), 91–116.
Francis, H., Parkes, C. & Reddington, M. (2014). E-HR and International HRM: a critical perspective on the discursive framing of e-HR. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(10), 1327–1350.
Golnaraghi, G., & Dye, K. (2016). Discourses of contradiction: A postcolonial analysis of Muslim women and the veil. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 16(2), 137–152.
Government of South Africa (2022). South Africa’s people. Retrieved January 20, 2022, from https://www.gov.za/about-sa/south-africas-people
Hassan, I., & Ghauri, P. N. (2014). Evaluating companies for mergers and acquisitions. Book Series: International Business and Management, 40, 75–89.
Hills, J. (2015). Addressing gender quotas in South Africa: Women empowerment and gender equality legislation. Deakin Law Review, 20(1), 153–184.
Hofstede, G. (1997). Lokales Denken, globales Handeln. Kulturen, Zusammenarbeit und Management. Beck.
Lee, H. A. (2016). Affirmative action regime formation in Malaysia and South Africa. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 51(5), 511–527.
Leonard, A. & Grobler, A. F. (2006). Exploring challenge to transformational leadership communication about employment equity: Managing organizational change in South Africa. Journal of Communication Management, 10(4), 390–406. https://doi.org/10.1108/13632540610714827
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Sage.
Mahadevan, J., & Mayer, C.-H. (2017a). Muslim minorities, workplace diversity and reflexive HRM. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Mahadevan, J., & Mayer, C.-H. (2017b). Towards a more inclusive HRM theory and practice. In J. Mahadevan & C.-H. Mayer (Eds.), Muslim minorities, workplace diversity and reflexive HRM (pp. 183–186). Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Mahadevan, J. & Schmitz, A. P. (2020). HRM as an ongoing struggle for legitimacy: A critical discourse analysis of HR managers as “employee-experience designers”. Baltic Journal of Management, 15(4), 515–532.
Mayer, C.-H. (2005). Artificial walls. Ibidem.
Mayer, C.-H., & Louw, L. (2009). Organisational conflict: Reflections on managing conflict, identities and values in a South African organisation. South African Journal of Human Resource Management, 7(1), 13. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v7i1.172
Mayer, C.-H., & Louw, L. (2013). “Who are you?” – Constructing managerial identities in post-apartheid South Africa. Management Revue, 24(4), 289–308.
Mayer, C.-H., & Oosthuizen, R. (2020). Occupational stress in South Africa: From the past to the fourth industrial revolution. In K. Sharma, C. Cooper, D. M. Pestonjee, & P. Deendayal (Eds.), Organisational stress around the world: Research and practice (pp. 284–302). Taylor and Francis.
Mayer, C.-H., Surtee, S., & Mahadevan, J. (2018). South African women leaders, transformation and diversity conflict intersections. Journal of Organisational Change Management, 31(4), 877–894. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-10-2016-0196
Mayer, C. H., & Wilke, K. (2022). Leading through VUCA times for a sustainable future of work: Expert views on the global automotive industry. In K. Dhiman & J. F. Marques (Eds.), Leadership after COVID-19. Future of business and finance (pp. 253–268). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84867-5_15
Meijerink, J., Boons, M., Keegan, A., & Marker, J. (2018). Special issue Call for papers: Digitization and the transformation of human resource management. The International Journal of Human Resource Management. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2018.1503845
Mockaitis, A. I., Zander, L., & De Cieri, H. (2018). The benefits of global teams for international organisations: HR implications. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29(14), 2137–2158.
Newman, A., Ferrer, J, Andresen, M., & Zhang, Y. (2021). Special issue call for papers: Human Resource Management in times of crisis. International Journal of Human Resource Management. https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/hr-management/
O’Malley, P. (2021). (1950). Population registration act no. 30. O’Malley: The heart of hope. https://omalley.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv01508/04lv01509/05lv01510.htm
Philbeck, T., & Davis, N. (2019). The fourth industrial revolution: Shaping a new era. Journal of International Affairs, 72, 17–22.
Pietersen, C. (2007). Interpersonal bullying behaviours in the workplace. South African Journal of Industrial Psychology, 33(1), 59–66.
Sackey, S. M., & Bester, A. (2016). Industrial engineering curriculum in Industry 4.0 in a South African context. South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 27(4), 101–114.
Scheider, J. (2018). Ausla ̈nder (Foreigners), migrants, or new Germans? Identity building processes and school socialisation among adolescents from immigrant backgrounds in Germany. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 160(1), 59–73. https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20241
Shaheen, M., & Pradhan, S. (2019). Sampling in qualitative research. In Qualitative techniques for workplace data analysis (pp. 25–51). IGI Global.
Shai, L., Molefinyana, C., & Quinot, G. (2019). Public procurement in the context of Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) in South Africa—Lessons learned for sustainable public procurement. Sustainability, 11(24), 7164.
Sleeter, C. E. (2018). Multicultural education past, present, and future: Struggles for dialogue and power sharing. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 20(1), 5–20. https://doi.org/10.18251/ijme.v20i1.1663
Syed, J. (2007). ‘The other woman’ and the question of equal opportunity in Australian organisations. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(11), 1954–1978.
Syed, J. (2020). Ensuring employee engagement amid a pandemic. EFMD Global Focus, 2(14), 54–59.
Van Schalkwyk, F. B., van Lill, M. H., Cloete, N., & Bailey, T. G. (2021). Transformation impossible: Policy, evidence and change in South African higher education. Higher Education, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-021-00687-7
Vidhya Venugopal, Shanmugam Rekha, Krishnamoorthy Manikandan, PerumalKamalakkannan Latha, Viswanathan Vennila, Nalini Ganesan, Perumal Kumaravel & StephenJeremiah Chinnadurai (2016). Heat stress and inadequate sanitary facilities at workplaces – an occupational health concern for women?, Global Health Action, 9:1, 31945. https://doi.org/10.3402/gha.v9.31945T
Wiggill, MN., & Van der Waldt, G. (2020). Incorporating Cultural Diversity, Nation Building and Social Cohesion When Teaching Communication and Relationship Management. In R. Tench, ANA. TKALAC VERCIC, & SABINE. EINWILLER (Eds.), Joy: Using strategic communication to improve well-being and organizational success (Vol. 5, pp. 169–182). (Advances in Public Relations and Communication Management; Vol. 5). Emerald Group Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2398-391420200000005012
Williams, P., Cathcart, A., & McDonald, P. (2021). Signals of support: Flexible work for mutual gain. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 32(3), 738–762.
Yin, R. K. (2018). Case study research and applications: Design and methods. Sage.
Zhuwao, S., Ngirande, H., Ndlovu, W., & Setati, S. T. (2019). Gender diversity, ethnic diversity and employee performance in a South African higher education institution. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 17(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v17i0.1061
Acknowledgements
Thanks go to the University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa, which supported parts of this research project financially, as well as to the engineering organisation and its leadership for the support, and the participants who agreed to participate in this research study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mayer, CH. (2023). HRM Practices in South Africa: Diversity and Inclusion in Contemporary and Future Workplaces. In: Mordi, C., Ajonbadi, H.A., Adekoya, O.D. (eds) Employee Relations and Trade Unions in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26825-0_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-26825-0_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-26824-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-26825-0
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)