Employee response to unfair discrimination by immediate supervisors

[摘要] The relationship between an immediate supervisor and an employee is of criticalimportance in employment relations. This relationship should be founded on trust inorder to ensure job satisfaction and productivity. Unfair discrimination is prohibited inSouth African organisations, and is therefore legally and socially unacceptable.Unfair discrimination by immediate supervisors could lead to lower levels of jobsatisfaction and other negative forms of work behaviour. Employees who areexposed to unfair discrimination can respond in a number of formal and informalways. South African labour laws allow for a number of informal and formalprocedures for dispute resolution in the workplace, including unfair discriminationdisputes. This study investigated white collar employee intended response to unfairdiscrimination by immediate supervisors. It was found that they will generally resolvesuch problems through direct communication with supervisors, before invoking moreformal procedures. There were no significant differences in intended response ofemployees from different gender and age groups, but significant differences in theintensity of intended responses of people from different race groups were found.

[发布机构] North-West University