Framework for Advancement of Women Working in Selected Regulatory Organizations in South Africa
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop a framework that would be used as a guideline for managers to create a conducive environment for women to advance into management positions in selected regulatory organizations operating in the maritime and aviation industries. The literature reviewed revealed that mentoring, employment equity legislation, and not confirming to stereotypes were some of the factors leading to women’s advancement into management positions. Feminism and equity theory were used to give the study theoretical grounding. The research approach was qualitative, the population size was twenty (N=20) and the sample size was fifteen (n=15). The latter was attained after the saturation point had been reached. The research protocol was developed from the literature reviewed. Face-to-face interviews were conducted and qualitative content analysis was used to develop study themes manually. The major findings of the study were that these factors enhanced women’s advancement into management positions: qualification and industry-related experience, fair recruitment and selection practices, proper handover, mastering work–life balance, and leadership and management development. It is envisaged that the results will empower managers and policy-makers dealing with employment equity, given the fact that women advancement into management positions is moving at a slow pace. In future a study can be conducted where a bigger sample size is used and the researchers could use the mixed-method approach. Furthermore, a follow-up study could be conducted using the same participants to establish whether they have advanced or not.
Downloads
References
Annis, B. & Gray, J. (2013). Work with me: How gender intelligence can help to succeed at work and life. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.
Anno-Frempong, M. (2014). Transport education and training authority women in transport summit presentation. [Online] Available at: http://www.transport.gov.za/Portals/0/Projects/sanwit% 202015/teta%20presentation%20for%20women%20summit%202015.pdf.Accessed 25/06/2016.
Babbie, E. & Mouton, J. (2008). The practice of social research (8thed), Cape Town: Oxford University Press Southern Africa.
Bless, C., Higson-Smith, C. & Sithole, S. L. (2013). Fundamentals of social research methods: An African perspective (6thed), Claremont: Juta.
Booysen, L. (2007). Barriers to employment equity implementation and retention of blacks in management in South Africa. South African Journal of Labour Relations, 31(1), 47-71.
Bosch, A. (2011). The South African Board for People Practices (SABPP) Women’s Report 2011. Parktown: SABPP.
Bratton, J., Callinan, M., Forshaw, C. & Sawchuk, P. (2007). Work and organizational behaviour: Understanding the workplace. New York, NY: Palgrave MacMillan.
Burke, R. J. & El-Kot, G. (2011). Gender similarities in work and well-being outcomes among managers and professionals in Egypt. International Journal of Gender and Entrepreneurship, 3(1), 56-74.
Chinyamurindi, W. T. (2016). A narrative investigation into the meaning and experience of career success: Perspective from women participants. South African Journal of Human Resource Management, 14(1), 1-11.
Choi, S. & Park, C. (2014). Glass ceiling in Korean Civil Service: Analyzing barriers to women’s career advancement in the Korean government. Public Personnel Management, 43(1), 118-139.
Coetzee, M. & Schreuder, D. (2010). Personnel psychology: An applied perspective. Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
Commission of Employment Equity. (2016). Employment Equity Report. [Online] Available at: http://www.labour.gov.za/DOL/downloads/documents/annual-reports/employment-equity/2015-2016/16th%20CEE%20Report.pdf. Accessed 24/06/2016.
Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design (4thed), Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Cukier, W., Jackson, S., Elmi, M. A., Roach, E. & Cyr, D. (2016). Representing women? Leadership roles and women in Canadian broadcast news. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 31(5), 374-395.
Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln, Y. S. (2011). The Sage handbook of qualitative research (4thed), Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
De Vos, A. S., Strydom, H., Fouché, C. B. & Delport, C. S. L. (2011). Research at grass roots. Pretoria: Van Schaik.
Du Toit, D., Godfrey, S., Cooper, C., Giles, G., Cohen, T., Conradie, B. & Steenkamp, A. (2015). Labour relations law: A comprehensive guide. Durban: LexisNexis.
Evans, D. (2011). Room at the top: Advancement and equity for women in the business world. National Civil Review, 100(2), 62-64.
Gill, R. (2014). Unspeakable inequalities: Post-feminism, entrepreneurial subjectivity, and the repudiation of sexism. Social Politics, 21(4), 509-528.
Gouws, A. (2012). Reflection on being a feminist academic/academic feminist in South Africa: Equality, diversity and inclusion. An International Journal, 31(5), 526-541.
Griffin, R. W., Phillips, J. M. & Gully, S. M. (2014). Organizational behaviour: Managing people and organizations (11thed), Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
Horwitz, F. M. & Jain, C. (2011). An assessment of employment equity and broad based economic empowerment developments in South Africa. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, 30(4), 297-317.
Kitada, M., Williams, E. & Froholdt, L. L. (2015). Maritime women: Global leadership. Berlin/Heidelberg, DE: Springer.
Knight, M. (2016). Racing, classing and gendering racialized women’s participation in entrepreneurship. Gender, Work &Organization, 23(3), 310-327.
Kumar, R. (2014). Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners (4thed), Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Lewis-Enright, K., Crafford, A. & Crous, F. (2009). Towards a workplace conducive to the career advancement of women. South African Journal of Industrial Psychology/Suid-Afrikaanse Tydskrifvir Bedryfsielkunde, 35(1), 136-144.
Maleka, M. J. (2012). An in-depth investigation of the factors contributing to employee dissatisfaction at the business application solution centre (BASC), ESKOM (DLitt et Phil-thesis). University of South Africa, Pretoria.
Maree, K. (2012). Complete your thesis or dissertation successfully: Practical guidelines. Claremont: Juta.
Mcwha-Hermann, I., Maynard, D. C. & Berry, M. O. (2016). Humanitarian work psychology and the global development agenda: Case studies and interventions. London, UK: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Nel, P. S., Kirsten, M., Swanepoel, B. J., Erasmus, B. J. & Jordaan, B. (2016). South African employment relations: Theory and practice. Pretoria: Van Schaik.
O’Neil, D. A., Hopkins, M. M. & Sullivan, S. E. (2011). Do women’s networks help advance women’s careers? Career Development International, 16(7), 733-754.
Potgieter, I. (2012). The attributes between self-esteem and employability of attributes of postgraduate business management students. South African Journal of Human Resource Management, 10(2), 1-15.
Republic of South Africa. (1996). The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, No. 108 promulgated on 18 December 1996 and commenced in February 1997. [Online] Available at: http://www.gov.za/structure/constitution.htm.Accessed 20/06/2016.
Republic of South Africa. (2003). National gender policy framework: women’s empowerment and gender equality, national gender policy framework. [Online] Available at: http://www.info.gov.za/otherdocs/2000.gender.pdf.Accessed 20/06/2016.
Robbins, S. P. & Judge, T. A. (2015). Organizational behaviour (16thed), Boston, MA: Pearson Education.
Robbins, S. P., Odendaal, A. & Roodt, G. (2007). Organizational behaviour: Global and Southern African perspectives (7thed), Cape Town: Pearson Education.
Sanderson, R. E. & Whitehead, S. (2016). The gendered international school: Barriers to women managers’ progression. Education and Training, 58(3), 328-338.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2012). Research methods for business students (6thed), Harlow, UK: Pearson Education.
Slutskaya, N., Simpson, R., Hughes, J., Simpson, A. & Uygur, S. (2016). Masculinity and class in the context of dirty work. Gender, Work and Organization, 23(2), 165-182.
Struwig, F. W. & Stead, G. B. (2013). Research: Planning, designing and reporting. Cape Town: Pearson Education.
Syed, J. & Murray, P. A. (2008). A cultural feminist approach towards managing diversity in top management teams. Equal Opportunities International, 27(5), 413-432.
Urban, B. (2010). A gender preference on career preference and entrepreneurship self-efficacy. South African Journal of Human Resource Management, 8(1), 1-8.
Wroblewski, A. (2014). Gender bias in appointment procedures for full professors: challenges to changing traditional and seemingly gender neutral practices. Gender transformation in the academy, 19, 291-313.
Yin, R. B. (2015). Case study research. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Zinn, S. (2016). Swimming upstream: A story of grit and determination to succeed. Randburg: KR Publishing.
Zippel, K. S. (2006). The politics of sexual harassment: A comparative study of the United States, the European Union and Germany. London, UK Cambridge University Press.
Copyright (c) 2017 Portia Mahwibi Tladi, Molefe Jonathan Maleka
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Author (s) should affirm that the material has not been published previously. It has not been submitted and it is not under consideration by any other journal. At the same time author (s) need to execute a publication permission agreement to assume the responsibility of the submitted content and any omissions and errors therein. After submission of a revised paper in the light of suggestions of the reviewers, editorial team edits and formats manuscripts to bring uniformity and standardization in published material.
This work will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) and under condition of the license, users are free to read, copy, remix, transform, redistribute, download, print, search or link to the full texts of articles and even build upon their work as long as they credit the author for the original work. Moreover, as per journal policy author (s) hold and retain copyrights without any restrictions.
