Affirmative action success as measured by job satisfaction

Abstract

Affirmative action represents a major goal fo r South African organisations since the initiation o f the process o f 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 thejob satisfaction of affirmative action beneficiaries. A structured interview, gauging the congruency o f organisations' affirmative action efforts with affirmative action effectiveness theory, and a jo b satisfaction questionnaire, measuring the job satisfaction experienced by affirmative action beneficiaries, were utilised. A sample o f 121 affirmative action beneficiaries employed by five organisations was used. An absolute, positive correlation wasfound between the level o f effectiveness o f the affirmative action strategies o f the different target organisations and the average level o f jo b satisfaction o f the affirmative action beneficiaries in each target organisation.