3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/handle/10539/45
Browse
3 results
Search Results
Item Challenges to upward mobility: perceptions of black women in the South African financial industry(2016) Ngwenya, Nasia NelisiweThe 21st century workplace is characterised by gender and racial diversity and intergroup contact which the world has never experienced before. This has far reaching implications for organisations given that a link has been made between an organisation’s improved financial performance and the presence of women and minorities in senior and executive roles. Despite increasing racial and gender diversity in the South African workplace, positions within management do not accurately represent this occurrence. Statistics show that White males still account for more than a two thirds majority in terms of representation at senior and top management levels, and Black women have the lowest representation. This research therefore explored the perceptions that Black women had regarding the barriers to their upward mobility in the South African Financial industry. The focus was on twenty Black women in varying occupational levels of middle, senior and top management. A combination of topics related to glass ceiling theory was used to derive statements which were presented to participants, using Q methodology, the study sought to discover and explore the patterns of perceptions in relation to these themes. Meta-stereotypes were also introduced as another theme to explore whether they existed to serve as a psychological barrier which influenced the perceptions and subsequent workplace attitudes and behaviours of the participants. The findings revealed two patterns of perceptions. The first was inward looking and pertained to the participants’ perceptions regarding their competence, hard work and career-mindedness. The second was more outward looking and pertained to the ambition of participants despite the challenges they perceived to exist. Negative meta-stereotypes were not found, indicating the absence of a negative psychological barrier to influence the perceptions of the participants.Item Enrich the narrative, empower the leader: the role of narradrama in enriching the narratives of women in corporate leadership(2017) Pather, VasinthaThis research aimed to explore problem-saturated narratives about self-efficacy in leadership amongst a group of women leaders from corporate organisations in Johannesburg, and the effectiveness of narradrama (Dunne, 2009) a drama therapy method, in enriching these narratives. Analysis points to the pervasiveness of gendered notions of men and women in society and how this plays out in the contexts of corporate organisations. The rationale for this study was that if corporate leadership is an historically socio-culturally male-dominated and gender-stereotyped domain from which women have been excluded, and in which traits stereotypically associated with women were undervalued, then dominant narratives embedded in this domain could be that women are not effective leaders, and that they do not belong. This could negatively affect perceived self-efficacy in leadership among women, and indirectly, efforts to address gender disparity in the context of corporate leadership. Sociocultural development theory (Vygotsky, 1978), and empowerment theory (Rappaport, 1987, Zimmerman, 2000), both of which assert the primacy of the sociocultural context in learning and development, theoretically informed the research. Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes. The research showed that problem-saturated narratives about leadership self-efficacy did exist and that narradrama proved effective in fostering enriched narrative possibilities amongst participants.Item Involvement of women in decision making in South Africa: a family business dimension(2016) Dlamini, Celenhle TVery little information seems to exist on the role of women in South African family owned businesses. Women in family businesses need to be recognized in order to highlight the constraints they may be facing and their contributions to the economy. The purpose of the study is to determine how human and social capital variables can empower women in family businesses to enhance their success or address their challenges. This research study follows a positivistic paradigm and a questionnaire was developed to assess the research objectives. The questionnaire was sent out to a sample of 200 females involved in family owned businesses from South Africa and 150 responses were received. The findings revealed that at lower levels of education, females were the key decision makers for business expenditure, borrowing and investment decisions. With regards to experience inside and outside of the family business, decision making was shared between males and females with the exception of business expenditure decision making at 0-5 years experience inside the family business. Furthermore, decision making was generally shared between males and females for most of the social capital variables, with the exception of using or relying on partnerships where females did not play apparent decision making roles. Practical recommendations from the findings for women in family owned businesses include shifting from operational to more strategic decision making; gaining experience outside of family owned business to strengthen decision making capabilities; which in turn, would empower them to tackle riskier elements of social capital, like relying on partnerships and conducting business on trust.