CHAPTER 4: LITERATURE REVIEW: SOUTH AFRICAN LEGISLATIVE
4.10 Effects of treating employees differently in provincial legislatures
The following are all important factors to consider relating to treating employees fairly. Failing to treat all employees fairly can result in, inter alia, loss of productivity, unhappy employees and lack of trust on the part of employees. All these issues are likely to result in a high turnover rate and will have a negative effect on the image of the organisation (Scott, 2016).
This may include not only high turnover, but also other activities associated with a negative image, such as low levels of employee motivation, employee satisfaction and employee engagement (Scott, 2016).
4.10.1 Employee motivation in provincial legislatures
It is important that employees in an organisation are motivated at all times. Provincial legislatures are no exception, because motivated employees are productive. However, when employees are not motivated, they are likely to leave the organisation to seek employment in other organisations (Khan et al., 2010; YildIz, Ayhan and Erdogmus, 2009). It is for this
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aforementioned reason that provincial legislatures should constantly measure employee motivation.
However, the lack of studies about the motivation of employees at provincial legislatures does not preclude the researcher from considering the results of other studies. For example, a study conducted in Parliament (Parliament of RSA. Report on Employee Turnover, 2011) found that a number of employees are likely to leave the institution because of a lack of motivation.
Therefore, the results of the study at the Parliament of RSA, by virtue of sharing almost similar characteristics with provincial legislatures, therefore, the inference of results to the entire provincial legislatures is possible (Parliament of RSA. Report on Employee Turnover, 2011). The findings of the study are not the only source of information about employee motivation in provincial legislatures.
The annual reports of provincial legislatures are credible sources of information. The Annual Report of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament (2010) reported that between the years 2010 and 2011 the average percentage of employee turnovers was 12%. Employee motivation in this partly influenced the rate of turnover intention emanating from the report.
The phenomenon of employee turnover intention, as observed by the HRM Forum of the legislative sector, identified the differential treatment of employees in provincial legislatures as another factor contributing to turnover (South African Legislative Sector, 2009).
It must be emphasised, though, that the phenomenon of a lack of motivation is not unique to the legislative sector. It is also prevalent in the Public Sector (South Africa. Public Service Commission of South Africa, 2009).
4.10.2 Employee turnover intention in provincial legislatures
Employees, at some point during their working lives, will leave one organisation for another.
That is why organisations are always at risk of losing employees (Ravichandran, 2010). It is therefore important that organisations be prepared for such an eventuality.
Organisations are continuously measuring the rate of employee turnover; because they need to identify what triggers employee turnover intention (Chiboiwa, Samuel and Chipunza, 2010;
Ravichandran, 2010; Ryan and Sagas, 2009).
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These triggers not only affect organisations in certain sectors, but all sectors (Allen and Grip, 2012). Provincial legislatures are no exception when it comes to the effect of the phenomenon of employee turnover intention.
Legislatures, which work mostly with politicians, could face challenges because of the ever- changing political landscape. The report on internal arrangements by the Parliament of the RSA highlights some of these challenges (Parliament of RSA. Parliamentary Committee on Internal Arrangements, 2010).
This report (Parliament of RSA. Parliamentary Committee on Internal Arrangements, Report, 2010) furthermore states that, in some instances, politicians twist the arms of the administrators, and if they fail to comply with the instructions, even when they are clearly unreasonable, it may have negative consequences for the employee. These constant and, in some instances, unreasonable demands lead to employees’ contemplating leaving the provincial legislature.
4.10.3 Employee satisfaction in provincial legislatures
Ayranci (2011) defines job satisfaction as the contentment a worker experiences owing to the match between the worker and the job values of the organisation. More simply described, job satisfaction is the extent to which a worker is happy with his job. Job satisfaction is an important factor in determining the turnover of employees (Ather et al., 2011; Muhammad and Wajidi, 2013; Obasan, 2011; Okubanjo, 2014).
An improvement in job satisfaction will lower turnover rates among the employees, which obviously shows that job satisfaction is negatively associated with turnover (Al Ahmadi, 2009;
Amah, 2009; Gu and Chi, 2009; Pichler and Wallace, 2009). Therefore, the turnover rate observed at provincial legislatures can also be associated with levels of satisfaction.
Accordingly, it is important that provincial legislatures should measure levels of satisfaction.
4.10.4 Employee engagement in provincial legislatures
The Parliament of the RSA’s Report on Employee Engagement (2012), conducted between the years 2010 and 2011, found that employee engagement at Parliament was marginally above 50% but lower than the acceptable threshold of 65%. A number of factors caused this, and one of these factors was the selective application of HRM policies and practices and perceived favouritism when there are vacant positions.
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The report further highlighted that it was crucial to engage employees in the workplace so that they could perform at their full potential or create an environment that would inspire employees to be fully engaged in their work. This can be possible in instances, when an organisation applies programmes intended to dispel the notion of favouritism in all respect.
The findings of this report (Parliament of RSA, Report on Employee Engagement, 2012) are not in isolation. This is because legislatures, by their very nature, being legislative authorities, possess almost the same characteristics as national Parliament. The results indicated that Parliament must develop programmes that intend to improve levels of employee engagement. Therefore, inferring the results to provincial legislatures was a risk, because of the lack or non-existence of similar studies or comparable studies in provincial legislatures.
It is true that treating employees differently is likely to cause employees to be disengaged with the organisation, and in turn not productive. Employees who believe that the organisation cares about their well-being are likely to improve their engagement with the job, and the organisation (Businessballs.com, 2010; Harris, 2010; Rayton et al., 2012).