Browsing by Author "Mahlawe, Samukelisiwe."

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The experiences of black professionals in corporate South Africa: navigating the black identity in predominantly white corporate workspaces.
(2021) Mathenjwa, Bongiwe Innocentia.; Mahlawe, Samukelisiwe.
Public places, parks or beaches are no longer clearly marked “Whites only”. However, the scourge of racial discrimination is still lingering in the post-apartheid South African corporate environment. During colonialism and apartheid, institutional racism became entrenched into the South African societal systems and institutions, also influencing policies, operations, and organisational cultures (Sivanandan, 2006). Furthermore, Black South Africans endured significant discrimination and outright denial of civil, social, political, educational, and economic entitlements throughout the apartheid era. Huge socio-economic disparities between racial and ethnic groupings continue to exist in employment, income and wealth, work-related promotions, and other sectors of the new South African economy. Professional office settings conceal subtle but pernicious manifestations of racism (Baker, 1995). It is against this background that this research seeks to investigate the experiences of Black professionals in corporate workplaces in South Africa. The theoretical framework underpinning this study is encapsulated in the Identity Negotiation Theory (INT), which enables the study to observe participants’ interaction with their colleagues and their work-related activities in White-dominated work environments. The research employs a qualitative case study approach based on the interpretive paradigm. The participants who took part in the study were nine Black professionals occupying senior management positions in corporate offices in South Africa. The study found that Black South African professionals go through negative experiences because of working in White-dominated environments. These experiences are categorised as being a numerical minority at a workplace, everyday Black professionals are subjected to stereotypes at the workplace, discrimination or subtle racism towards Black South African professionals, Black professionals adopt code-switching strategies in the face of White power structures; experiencing emotional toll as a result of being a racial minority at the workplace and poor policy implementation in the South African work environment. The study recommends that certain interventions and measures be put in place to encourage organisations to create safe and conducive work and business environments for the growth and development of the previously marginalised groups.
Studying the effects of status in an interactive minimal group environment.
(2016) Mahlawe, Samukelisiwe.; Quayle, Michael Frank.
Background: The Minimal Group paradigm proposed that social categorisation alone was necessary to produce group behaviour. Moreover, through Social Identity Theory the studies claimed that once people are categorised into groups they automatically take on group personas that cause them to favour their ingroups and discriminate against the outgroup. Other scholars contend that groups are not as simple as sharing a social category. They are instead more complex social systems of interacting individuals which consist of dynamics and networks as people engage in social activity and make meaning of their behaviours. Moreover, groups are typically defined by patterns and norms which emerge through interaction and evolve over time. Thus, by having removed interaction from their methodology, scholars believe that the minimal group studies became too minimal that they omitted an essential component involved in groups. There is a need therefore to re-visit these studies in an environment that captures the interactive nature of groups and illuminates the diachronic processes involved in group formation and behaviour. Aim and Rationale: This research replicated the MG studies in an interactive setting to study the influence of status on the token giving behaviours of minimal groups. Methodology: The research adopted a quantitative descriptive method. A convenience sampling strategy was used to select participants from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg Campus. An experiment in the format of a computer game was conducted where participants after being categorised into one of two groups, were tasked with allocating tokens to other members of groups over a 40 game round period. The Virtual Interaction APPLication software provided a platform for studying how groups take shape as they interact, receive feedback, and make meaning of their behaviours over time. To measure ingroup favouritism the study measured instances of outgroup giving among the players. Outgroup giving mirrored ingroup giving without self-giving and was therefore deemed as a more reliable measure of ingroup favouritism. All data from the games was saved onto the programme and analysed using the Generalised Linear Mixed Model method. Results: Findings displayed that players in the group condition were less likely than those in the individual condition to engage in outgroup giving. This meant group categorisation produced group orientated behaviours among participants. Outgroup giving was found to be numerically higher among groups in the social equality condition than those in the social inequality condition, and increased over the rounds. An interaction between status and social equality determined that the difference in outgroup giving between low and high status groups conditions was highest in the social inequality condition. High status groups displayed significantly higher levels of outgroup giving than low status groups, with this norm increasing over the game rounds. Low status groups displayed the lowest levels of outgroup giving overall. Conclusion: This study investigated the effects of status on the token giving patterns of minimal groups in an interactive environment. The study determined that ingroup favouritism and outgroup antagonism was highest in conditions of social inequality. Unequal status groups were more likely to favour their own groups in their token allocations than equal status groups. Low status groups were least likely overall to share their tokens with the outgroup and as a result were more discriminatory than high status groups. The study also introduced a new framework for studying groups rather as dynamic and interacting phenomena as opposed to mere social categories. Using this approach, the study demonstrated that group behaviours are indeed marked by sequential patterns of interaction and change processes that increase and gain momentum over time and give rise to normative behaviours. Thus, interaction serves as the primary conduit of social influence between groups as individuals actively relate to one another and make meaning of their behaviours.
Teaching in a school affected by gang violence in Durban: an exploration of educators’ experiences.
(2021) Khuzwayo, Nonkululeko.; Mahlawe, Samukelisiwe.
The escalation of gang violence in South African schools has resulted in schools rapidly becoming places of violence. The violence is not only perpetrated by learners on fellow learners, but it is now being directed towards educators as well. The social ills existing in the communities negatively affect both learners and educators. Most studies focus specifically on how gang violence occurring in schools affects learners and thus there is a dearth of literature interrogating the extent to which educators in South Africa have been affected by the phenomenon. There is a need for policy makers and stakeholders to consider the effect of school-based gang violence on educators as the risk is not limited to learners. Acknowledging this vacuum, this study aimed to explore educators’ experiences of gang violence in Umlazi District, Durban, South Africa. The study adopted a qualitative approach to delve deeper into the educators’ narratives to understand their interpretation of the phenomenon in their natural setting. The population for this study comprised educators from one secondary school in Umlazi District. Five educators and four members of the School Management Team (SMT) were purposively selected by virtue of possessing rich data on the phenomenon being interrogated. To enhance the robustness of the findings, the researcher observed the School Safety Policy. The data obtained from in-depth interviews and the focus group discussion were analysed using the thematic analysis method. The thematic analysis process allowed the researcher to develop themes that reflected the researcher’s interpretation of the participants’ meanings of the narratives on gang violence bedeviling South African schools. This study revealed that the gang violence occurring in schools poses danger to the educators’ social, psychological and physical well-being within the school setting. The most common effects of gang violence affecting schools were mainly found to be traumatic, behavioural, and psychological. Consequently, teaching and learning have been affected thus compromising learners’ academic achievements over a period of time. Educators demonstrated the strategies they adopted to navigate situations arising from gang violence. For instance, they distanced themselves from disruptive learners, they supported each other in overwhelming situations and they worked in groups to deal with issues arising from the violence. Accordingly, the study advocates the provision of onsite psychological services to the victims of gang violence. It recommends the development and implementation of programmes meant to capacitate educators and thus create awareness on dealing with school-based gang violence.