Abstract
M.Phil.
South Africa has a reputation as the strike capital of the world, and industrial action is a key identified risk facing South Africa. Described as a cycle of value destruction, industrial action not only impacts companies and their performance, but also workers and their dependants (Soko & Balchin, 2014). While some issues are resolved at bargaining council level, many problems facing companies and their workforce need to be creatively resolved through effective engagement between employers and unions. Spiral Dynamics is a development theory that argues that individuals and groups have different thinking or value systems, and that this impacts their behaviour, perceptions, and approaches. While Spiral Dynamics has been applied widely in South Africa by, amongst others, Volckmann and Beck (2011), Laubscher 2013), Viljoen (2015), and Salters (2011), there are limited studies on its application in union and employer engagements. This study examined to what extent Spiral Dynamics as a tool could be applied to enhance understanding of union-employer engagements for all stakeholders. The aim was to contribute to the growing body of research around industrial action in South Africa, focusing, however, on ways to proactively improve union‒employer engagements and minimise conflict. A qualitative, exploratory, phenomenological research approach was applied to a specific case. Primary data were collected by means of content analysis, direct observations, semi-structured interviews, and the application of spiral dynamics. A total of 37 employer‒union engagements were observed, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 participants on their perceptions of the engagements. The study highlights the importance of the history and context of the relationship and the impact it has on the effectiveness of the engagements between employer and union. A map of the engagements was developed and overlaid onto Kraybill’s Cycle of Reconciliation (1995). This highlighted the importance of understanding reconciliation, not as a once-off activity, but as a process, and, specifically, the importance of two key steps: (1) jointly understanding of the need to separate...