Most participants believed that when one is happy at work, the happiness to a larger extent is transformed to other corners of one’s life. One participant asserted that;
I think what completes life is happiness at work and in your personal life. My belief is that it is difficult for the happiness in your personal life to be transformed to happiness at work. This is because at work, there is a system which is set and determined by other factors that I, as an employee does not have control over. So, if it happens that the set system is congruent to your values and needs, especially in a company like this one, then you are lucky since this will complete your life. I feel factors at home can be controlled especially if you are a man, taking from our African culture. So, being happy at work implies being happy in your life. That’s what I believe (WC5).
Unfortunately, all the participants in the current study were males since there were only five ladies in the whole company and were not available for the interviews. As a result, it could not be established if women shared a similar view. However, almost all males interviewed revealed that there was a strong relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction.
6.3.1 Importance of reciprocity towards goal achievement
As discussed in Chapter Three, the working environment has greater influence on organisational effectiveness. The ability of management to cultivate an environment which
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is appreciated by its stakeholders can be a major drive towards satisfaction and business survival. Arising from this, most participants in the company under study revealed that they were frustrated by the working environment surrounding them.
I work as an electrician. As you know, this company is a joint venture between Zimbabweans and Chinese. There is nothing frustrating as given a gadget with instructions written in a language you don’t understand. That is how I work. I have difficulties because there won’t be anything in English. What frustrates more is that there will not be anyone willing to help you. The Chinese are not supportive but us;
we help them when they need our assistance. Our black bosses cannot do anything because you cannot force one to translate for you. Adding more stress is the fact that we do not have access to internet so that one can google. So, it’s an extra cost to me as an employee because I need to folk out some money (WC3).
From the above participant, it can be noted that lack of support is a contributing factor towards frustration of employees in this company. In support of this, one workers’
committee member pointed that;
Most disciplinary cases in this company are not out of ignorance or intentional. I can safely say employees need support and they are not getting that support from the necessary authorities. You cannot expect a Zimbabwean to just wakeup today and be in a position to understand, read or write Chinese. Although there are guys employed as translators, they are not willing to help the shop-floor employees when such a need arises (WC2).
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Findings on organisational citizenship revealed that miners mostly exhibit individual oriented organisational citizenship behaviour where emphasis is on the subjective behaviour. Little or no focus is given to organisational citizenship behaviour. One reason why individual oriented behaviours are dominant is the need to encourage and support one another in a ‘foreign system’. By foreign system, miners and some managers meant a structure which is far-off from their expectations, values and understanding. To adapt to such a unique setting, black management and miners had developed their own world outside work.
If we don’t help one another in this environment, it will be easy for one to quit the job and we all know that the economy out there is not favourable if one is unemployed. As Africans, we rejoice when our own are also happy. When we see the way we are treated by our counterparts, anger flares because that’s not how we were brought up. We try to show love to the Chinese but our efforts are thwarted because they don’t reciprocate. Helping each other is the only way out for us to be happy (WC1).
Managers also reported that miners do not exhibit much citizenship behaviours which are directly beneficial to the company. For them (managers), the company indirectly benefit from individual oriented citizenship behaviours which help retain employees despite unfavourable conditions in the company.
6.3.2 Lack of recognition
Lack of recognition was also pointed as one reason why some employees in the company under study are frustrated. One supervisor, a workers’ representative as well pointed that;
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There are many guys with good qualifications in this company, but these qualifications are not considered when promotion arises. It is frustrating to learn that someone who is supervising you is not qualified for that job and you will be there with your qualification. People buy positions. Money is used. The same people come to you to explain things for them because they don’t know. So most of the time one end up doing two jobs yet you will only be paid for one. It’s not fair (WC4).
This was further supported by a middle manager who pointed that;
Most of my colleagues are well educated. They have good qualifications. It is unfortunate that our system does not recognise qualifications. We don’t know the criteria they use to upgrade people because you find that your superior will not be qualified as you will be. I think this is just a problem to the Zimbabwean side. For Chinese, they have a clear succession plan and they groom each other well. So, most black qualified employees including myself are very frustrated by the situation. There is no motivation to strive for better because you know you will never be recognised. Look at the Chinese, young guys occupy very senior positions but this will remain a dream for most blacks no matter how educated you are (MM1).
Employees’ perception that they are lowly satisfied in their respective jobs contradicts with the quantitative findings where the participants were found to be averagely satisfied.
6.3.3 Lack of autonomy
The lack of choice and self-determined behaviours in the work they do has destroyed psychological empowerment states of most miners. According to one participant,
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We are not given opportunities to exercise autonomy on our work. You don’t choose on how the job should be done even when you have better ideas than those of the supervisor. If you try to do things better, you get punished for that and that destroys our esteem I am telling you (WC5).
Management could not comment much on psychological empowerment since they felt that for one to be psychologically empowered, he/she has to be satisfied first in their work so that they get engaged in their work and if the two are in place, then one will feel psychologically empowered. For management therefore, the factors highlighted as affecting job satisfaction and work engagement among miners ultimately affect psychological empowerment.
Having established their perceptions on miners’ psychological well-being and organisational citizenship behaviours, the findings revealed the need for involvement in organisational matters as important towards the enhancement of psychological well-being at work.