Communicating affirmative action in three South African organisations

Abstract

Problems associated with the management of communication (in the broadest sense ofthe word) are a recurring theme in both Corporate Communication Management andHuman Resource Management literature and in research on the implementation ofaffirmative action1 as part of the Employment Equity Act2 in the South African context.Therefore, the following research question was formulated: “How do South Africanorganisations manage communication about affirmative action (against the backdropof employment equity3)?”.This article provides an overview of some dimensions of an exploratory qualitative studythat investigated this research question. The ever-increasing strategic importance oforganisational performance regarding the EEA highlights the need for research in thisarea. This study is one of only a few empirical studies in the field of CorporateCommunication with the emphasis on topics related to the management of communicationin this specific transformational context.Since this study focused on aspects that had not been researched previously (or verifiedempirically), an exploratory approach had to be followed, with the purpose of gaugingpossible current trends related to the management of communication about AA in aselection of South African organisations. A case study comparison of three organisationsyielded the following results on four sub-questions derived from the overarching researchquestion. The organisations researched (1) comply with their legal duty to inform andconsult with stakeholders about the process of EE as stipulated in the Code of GoodPractice for the EEA (Department of Labour, 1999); (2) the management of EE is viewedas a transformational change process, as opposed to a once-off incident; (3) the management of communication in this context is viewed as a critical success factor, buta disparity exists between the emphasis placed on strategic external and internalcommunication efforts; and (4) leaders at all hierarchical levels have differentcommunication responsibilities in relation to this transformational process.Based on the results of this study, the major recommendation for the management ofaffirmative action communication pertains to the need to address the perceived gapbetween internal and external communication efforts. Since strategic internalcommunication is not only viewed as critical for the dissemination of information, butalso as the vehicle through which transformation is facilitated, the value thereof shouldnot be underestimated.