Affirmative action success as measured by job satisfaction

Abstract

Affirmative action represents a major goal for South African organisations since the process of democratisation in 1994. Evaluating the success of affirmative action programmes is therefore considered a priority. The research objective was to investigate the association between affirmative action effectiveness and the job satisfaction of affirmative action beneficiaries. A literature survey concerning affirmative action, affirmative action success, and job satisfaction was done. A structured interview, gauging the congruency of organisations' affirmative action efforts with affirmative action effectiveness theory, and a job satisfaction questionnaire, measuring the job satisfaction experienced by affirmative action beneficiaries, were utilised. The study was conducted among 121 affirmative action beneficiaries employed by five organisations. ')( The result of the empirical study proved that a significant direct relationship exists between the level of effectiveness of the target organisations' affirmative action endeavours and the level of job satisfaction experienced by their affirmative action beneficiaries.