Abstract
Decent work has become a growing area of focus across countries worldwide. It centres on ensuring that employees are provided with safe working conditions, fair compensation, adequate rest and leave, access to healthcare, and a workplace culture that aligns with their personal values. These components have been strongly emphasized by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which continues to advocate for decent work as a fundamental right. Significant attention has been given to these elements, as many organisations and employers have recognised the importance and necessity of providing their employees with decent working conditions. Decent work plays a vital role in reducing unemployment, enhancing job satisfaction, and fostering a more engaged and productive workforce.
Despite this global attention, little is known about how decent work is subjectively experienced by interns, particularly within the field of Industrial and Organisational Psychology (IOP). Interns make up an important part of South Africa’s workforce and ensuring that they are provided with decent work is critical not only for their development but also for the country’s broader economic growth. This study therefore explored how emerging IOPs in South Africa experience decent work during their internship year, a period that marks the transition from academic study to professional practice.
A qualitative, phenomenological research design was used within a social constructivist approach to capture the subjective nature of participants lived experiences. This approach allowed for an in-depth exploration of how emerging IOPs personally perceived and made meaning of decent work within their unique organisational contexts. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with ten emerging IOPs who had either completed or were nearing the completion of their internships. The open-ended format encouraged reflection and provided rich, descriptive accounts of their experiences. Thematic analysis was applied to identify and interpret key patterns and meanings that emerged from their descriptions, allowing the study to reveal both shared and individual understandings of what constitutes decent work
Findings revealed that while most participants experienced physical safety and work that was meaningful and relevant to their professional training, many did not experience decent work in its full sense. Common challenges included limited psychological safety, inadequate compensation, insufficient rest and leave, and restricted access to healthcare. Although some emerging IOPs reported alignment between their personal and organisational values, others
described feeling disconnected, reflecting the varying quality of decent work experiences across internship contexts.
The study demonstrated that, although certain dimensions of decent work were present, others remained underdeveloped within many internship settings. Overall, the findings provide a clear picture of how emerging IOPs in South Africa navigate both the presence and absence of decent work within their internship experiences. These findings highlight the importance of collaboration between universities, professional bodies, and host organisations in creating internship environments that promote all dimensions of decent work, safe working conditions, access to healthcare, fair and adequate compensation, sufficient rest and leave, and alignment between organisational and personal values. The study contributes to the growing body of qualitative research on decent work by offering insight into how it is experienced at the entry point to the profession.