Employee participation in post-apartheid South Africa as a tool for global competitiveness.

This research focused on employee participation in South African organisations as a tool for global competitiveness. Chapter one outlines the background to the study, its aims, statement of the problem and the research methodology. World wide socio -political and political changes were discussed. It emerged that such changes have revolutionalised and democratised countries and their organizations. Despite being recognised as a democratic country now, many of South Africa’s organisations are not yet fully democratic. Such organisations face the danger of being out-performed globally by those organisations that have already democratised themselves, as dictated by global trends. Using a theoretical exploration of relevant literature, the research was designed to determine the extent to which organisations in South Africa have positioned themselves to compete globally through the use of employee participation at the workplace. A theoretically-oriented method was utilised since the concepts of Global Competitiveness, or being “World-Class”, and that of Employee Participatio n are relatively new in South Africa. It is argued that the method contributes, inter alia, to the uncovering of generalisations that could be investigated by future researchers using more accurate and complex designs. At the same time, a broader understanding of the concepts of Global Competitiveness and “World-Class” is gained. From a detailed discussion of the concept “World-Class” it is evident that “world-class” organisations design their strategies, structures and leadership processes in such a way that customers’ needs are continuously met. To ensure that customers are provided with high quality products, globally competitive organisations continuously benchmark their systems, processes and results against those of the best organisation in the world . It is argued that Employment Relations Management as a sub-system of the wider organisational system has to be designed and managed in a way that ensures the satisfaction of the organisation’s employees and external clients. It also has to be benchmarked to ensure that it continues to deliver optimally. This necessitates a paradigm shift in the management of Employment Relations, from the typically Unitarist approach that characterised the work-place prior to the country’s democratisation in April 1994, to an integrated approach that takes cognisance of the interests, values and needs of all stakeholders. Such an approach would, noProf. J.A. Slabber