MBA & MM Theses

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/9084

For information on accessing MBA & MM Theses content please contact Khomotso Chipu via email : Khomotso Chipu or Tel(W) : 011 717 3638
Alternatively contact Patience Mpitsa via email : Patience Mpitsa or Tel (W) : 011 717 3635

Browse

Filters

2011 - 20142

Settings

Has files: YesSubject: search.filters.subject.Black managers

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Factors that influence black senior managers to leave South African organisations
    (2014-01-09) Shakwane, Sylvia Bibi
    The objective of this research was to identify factors that influence black senior managers to leave South African organisations. Past inequalities in South Africa and decreased access to tertiary education have resulted in a shortage of skilled black professionals. These professionals are currently in high demand by organisations eager to comply with current legislation regulating the inclusion and advancement of previously disadvantaged individuals in the workplace. In an attempt to secure these scarce skills and to keep them, organisations have to work harder as they compete against each other for a limited pool of candidates. They therefore need to obtain a deeper understanding of the factors that influence them to leave. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on a randomly selected sample of 12 very senior black managers from different industries. The outcomes differed from certain aspects of the literature review, while some consistencies were also noted. The study found that managers left mainly due to a lack of career development opportunities and also for better career prospects offered by other organisations. These findings depart from the literature findings, which revealed that black managers left primarily because they could not ‘fit in’ and were ‘resisted’ by presumably white organisational cultures. The black managers thus felt that they encountered racial discrimination, which led to their departure. The study revealed that organisational cultures were not only diverse but highly inclusive and racial discrimination was a small, largely inconsequential concern. In keeping with the literature findings, unpleasant senior managers, together with unfair organisational practices and policies also influenced departures. The career needs and aspirations of black senior managers are often neglected by organisations that are perhaps overly-focused on attaining equity figures. The research has revealed that black managers are highly career focused and the key message to organisations is that it is imperative to institute measures that can be used to effectively develop and manage career growth. These measures must be supported by good leadership and fair organisational practices and policies.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Career advancement challenges
    (2011-05-19) Mkwalo, Lumkile
    This study was conducted in an attempt to uncover the reason for the uneven pace of promotion for black African managers in the South African work place, Employment Equity Commission (2008). While many previous studies of the same subject focused on the executive management level, this study sought to include the lower levels of management. The study was conducted through in-depth, one-on-one interviews with twenty black African managers from large South African corporate companies, and their inputs were triangulated with input from six supervisors and six employment agents. The supervisors and agents were sampled to include both male and female white, Indian and coloured respondents. The study found that, while black African managers were technically competent, they were hamstrung by prejudice in the workplace, poor performance management, poor career planning and their inability to network effectively, especially with senior, white colleagues. The transformational legislation meant to help their career aspirations was also poorly enforced by the government and consequently indifferently implemented by the corporations. This left them without concrete developmental plans that would lead to measurable career progression. New negative trends included the perception of an afro-pessimistic media, diluted jobs, being surrounded and outnumbered, inequitable expectation, ethnic hierarchies of oppression, political coyness, double battery, room-for-one syndrome and acceleration to the abyss. A positive trend included the slow emergence of a one cosmopolitan culture among young managers across all racial lines which was beginning to blur previously-held stereotypes