Metodología PMI

After a basic overview of the differences in priorities, these will be explained using the theoretical framework from chapter 3 and the context to empowerment in South Africa’s wine industry provided in chapter 4. Through this the final sub-question can be answered: “How can these differences in the expectations and perceptions of empowerment of farm workers be explained?”.

Temporary - permanent workers’ priorities

Workers self-identify their priorities as both material and immaterial whereby material benefits have the upper hand but only slightly. Especially notable is the priority workers attach to enjoying the work they do. This is particularly important for permanent employees. They are likely to realize that they will continue to work on the farm for the foreseeable future. Temporary workers on the other hand might still consider farm labour to be something temporary. Temporary workers are also more inclined to seek off-farm employment and are more confident that their skills are valuable outside the farm environment. The different weight accorded to work enjoyment can be explained in multiple ways. One way to understand this is through the fulfillment of needs, a second is through one’s outlook on the future.

When using a needs perspective, Maslow’s and Alderfer’s approaches are very valuable. Temporary workers are in a more precarious situation. They face more risk of being exploited and due to the temporary nature of their employment it is hard for them to devote attention to long term objectives. Due to this, they direct considerable attention to what Maslow identifies as the physiological and safety needs (or existence needs according to Alderfer (1969). The purely physiological needs can be (partly) accounted for through increasing salaries. Safety needs however are directly related to job security and other provisions such as security of tenure and medical insurance. Both these needs are to a greater extent satisfied for permanent workers than for temporary workers. Permanent workers have job security and frequently also security of tenure and (some) medical insurance giving them more room to desire other needs among which work enjoyment can be placed. Work enjoyment is very broad and can be improved in multiple ways. Fair financial compensation is one part because it makes people view themselves – and their work – as valuable. It also contains elements of responsibility whereby work enjoyment is increased if workers feel they are more in control over their work and have some decision making freedom. Work

116 enjoyment thus closely correlates to the ‘power’ and ‘rewards’ components identified by Paul et al.

(2000). Temporary workers have different needs and therefore can accord less priority to the enjoyment of work.

When approaching the importance attached to work enjoyment from a future oriented perspective different explanation arises. Temporary workers are more eager to work outside the farm than permanent employees and might consider farm work as something of temporary nature. When work is seen as temporary, people are more willing to accept less enjoyable work. Permanent workers who know their (foreseeable) future involves farm labour want to make the best of it. Therefore, they want their work to be as enjoyable as possible. In addition, permanent workers go through a process of compromising on their aspirations and preferences to a level where they consider their farm work to be fitting with their occupational aspirations. For work to be considered to fit, the work must also be enjoyable, at least to some extent.

Farmers do not explicitly recognize work enjoyment as a priority which can also be for multiple reasons. Firstly, farmers seem to focus on immediate and material improvements (increased salary, housing) while work enjoyment is very subjective and immaterial. Work enjoyment however can be implicitly embedded in increased salary. A transfer of responsibilities, identified by farmers as important also leads to greater work enjoyment (Paul et al., 2000). The immaterial, long term priority recognized by farmers is the education of children. A second possible explanation is that farmers do not consider “work enjoyment” to be an distinguishable empowerment component but rather see it as the outcome of all direct actions they take to improve the situation of farm workers and their children’.

Age related priorities

The trend is that older respondents are more satisfied with the work they do, and are happier on the farm than younger respondents. Younger respondents are more ambitious and eager to find off-farm employment. These findings are in line with what farmers predicted. Farmers suggested that farming is particularly unpopular among young people for various reasons; the low salaries, hard work and low social status accorded to it all play a role in this unpopularity (White, 2012). Farmers explain that older workers have grown accustomed to their situation and that efforts to empower them yield little results. This is in line with what Gottfredson (1981) posits about occupational aspirations. The low prestige accorded to farm labour leads to a bad occupational image consequently leading people to aspire to employment in other professions. This explains why youth does not want to work in agriculture and thereby why they are less happy when they do work on a farm. Older workers believe they have fewer opportunities for alternative employment. These (perceived) barriers in turn

117 influence workers’ perceptions of farm labour. They (unconsciously) make compromises to the point that farm work is their desired work because they believe it is what they can do (well). Complementing this process of compromising is the reduction of ambitions that take place when a person’s growth is limited/stagnant for an extended period of time. In this case they will become satisfied if even their most basic needs are met.100 Given that most older workers also have permanent employment contracts their physiological and safety/existence needs are met to a greater extent. Workers and farmers alike thus seem to share similar visions in this regard.

Worker responsibility

Independently from each other both workers and farmers in focus group discussions and interviews considered a transfer of responsibility to the workers as an essential component of empowerment. This responsibility should concern the decision making processes that come with their function. For workers having more responsibility is a sign of respect for their individual capabilities. It signifies that the farmer trusts them and it is then up to the worker to show that this trust is deserved. This helps to empower workers because it boosts their self-esteem. Paul et al. (2000) identify four components for worker empowerment: information, knowledge, power, and rewards. Increasing worker responsibility has a direct impact on the first three. Workers will (need to) become more informed about the processes taking place on the farm to handle their new responsibilities well. This means their knowledge of the business, and how to run it/it is run, must be increased, improving workers’ ‘technical skills’.

New powers are vested in the worker, the power to make individual decisions. Indirectly this leads to several rewards. One is that more responsibility, either in the short or long term, usually leads to increased financial compensation. A second effect is that workers will receive more recognition adding to the fulfillment of their need for love, esteem and self-actualization (Maslow, 1943) or

relatedness and growth (Alderfer, 1969). When such needs are being satisfied to a greater extent it also increases the work enjoyment workers have.101

For a farmer it is important to increase responsibility of workers because it allows their attention to be devoted to areas other than supervision. The transfer of responsibility is however a difficult one due to the entrenched paternalism within the wine farming industry. Too often, after workers are

100 _{Maslow (1943): physiological and safety needs, Alderfer (1969): existence needs}

101 _{Work enjoyment is not exclusively formed by the satisfaction of needs and having responsibility. One also}

has to genuinely feel good about their work, have nice colleagues, and feel a passion for this (which is a part of the self-actualization need described by Maslow). However, being respected for who you are and what you can do in the work environment contribute greatly to enjoying one’s work.

118 granted some responsibility and make a mistake, the farmer falls back into doing things the way they are used to. The realization that more responsibility needs to be transferred however is a step in the right direction.