Creating job satisfaction in Africa: A case study from Mozambique

Creating job satisfaction in Africa:A case study from Mozambique

Kurt Sartorius, Andres Merino de la Nuez &Teresa Carmichael

How to set up successful multicultural human resource management programmes remains a

contentious issue. This study examined variables that influenced job satisfaction in the workforce

of a multinational company operating in Mozambique. It took a mixed methods approach and

analysed case study data using a combination of content, thematic, descriptive and statistical

techniques. The results indicate that the level of job satisfaction of these employees was compar-

able to that of employees in former Soviet Bloc countries; however, it varied significantly across

levels of employee. The results also demonstrate that, to be more successful, ‘foreign’ management

practices should be adapted to the local culture and, further, that humanism in the African

workplace can positively mediate a traditional instrumentalist rewards system.

Keywords: job satisfaction; human resource management; Mozambique

1. Introduction

Multinational companies investing in Africa often inappropriately import and implement

foreign based instrumentalist type human resource management (HRM) programmes

that reflect a contract based view of an employee as merely a resource (Jackson,

2002). The management practices of these companies are often unquestioningly accepted

by local economies that may be desperate to secure foreign investment. Needless to say,

whether local employees are open or resistant to new business partnerships, they soon

start to question HRM practices that are alien to their culture, while the parent

company cannot understand why the indigenous workforce are not more grateful for

their newfound prosperity (Gomez-Mejia & Palich, 1997; Sousa-Poza & Sousa-Poza,

2000; Hofstede, 2001; Jackson, 2002; Pitcher, 2006; Carmichael & Rijamampianina,

2007; Horwitz, 2007). Rijamampianina & Carmichael have indicated that organisations

fail more often because of insufficient consideration of cultural and, by implication,

human factors than because of strategic breakdown: ‘To ignore the human factor with

all its associated elements is, in the longer term, sure to invite failure’ (2005:93).

The recent experiences of multinationals operating in Africa underline the need for a

better understanding of local cultures and values, particularly when it comes to develop-

ing HRM policies (Pitcher, 2006; Carmichael & Rijamampianina, 2007; Dimba &

K’obonyo, 2007). It has been observed that cultural values in particular need to be

respected if a workforce is to be content and productive (Ogbonna & Harris, 2002).

This HRM problem is underlined by the growing corporate militancy of workers

(Pitcher, 2006; Luiz, 2007), as well as a drop in productivity, poor motivation, increased

Respectively, Associate Professor, School of Accountancy, University of the Witwatersrand;Senior Lecturer, School of Accountancy, University of the Witwatersrand; and AssociateProfessor, Wits Business School, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. Correspondingauthor: [email protected]

Development Southern Africa Vol. 28, No. 2, June 2011

ISSN 0376-835X print/ISSN 1470-3637 online/11/020255-15 # 2011 Development Bank of Southern AfricaDOI: 10.1080/0376835X.2011.570072

levels of alienation, labour unrest and strikes (Human, 1996; Pitcher, 2006; Carmichael &

Rijamampianina, 2007; Dimba & K’obonyo, 2007; Horwitz, 2007).

In Mozambique, a central strategy of the Frelimo government after 1992 was to promote

foreign investment. One such investment was the Mozal project, an aluminium smelting

operation situated in Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique. The Mozal Company, the

focus of this paper, is owned by BHP Billiton (47%), the Mitsubishi Corporation (25%),

the Industrial Development Corporation of South Africa (24%) and the Mozambique

Government (4%). The company initiated operations in June 2000 and by 2001 was

employing 750 personnel. The newly employed workforce was young and had no experi-

ence of working in a high technology production environment. From the outset, the level

of job satisfaction was problematic. Workers complained that they were alienated by the

company’s HRM practices. The unrest culminated in an illegal 26-day strike in October

2001 and the company dismissed a number of workers. After protracted negotiations, the

company reinstated the majority of workers and implemented a series of HRM changes

(Granjo, 2003). Employment increased from 2001 and by 2007/08 the Company was

employing 1100 people across five different levels, including two categories of tech-

nician, administration staff, middle management and senior management.

The dynamics of job satisfaction are elusive because this phenomenon is influenced by

such a wide range of explanatory variables (Bender et al., 2005; Faragher et al., 2005;

D’Addioa et al., 2007). The formation of successful multicultural teams is also not a

natural phenomenon (Rijamampianina & Carmichael, 2005) and the advancement of

black employees in most African countries has been problematic (Human, 1996; Schnei-

der & Barsoux, 2003c). The study this paper is based on investigated some of the HRM

variables that influenced job satisfaction in the Mozal Company. Answers were sought to

three research questions. The researchers examined the level of job satisfaction in a

company setting, tested whether a range of intrinsic and traditional extrinsic HRM

rewards influenced job satisfaction, and attempted to discover whether humanist vari-

ables influence job satisfaction in an African context. The paper is organised as

follows: Section 2 describes the conceptual framework, Section 3 outlines the data

and method, Section 4 presents and discusses the results, and Section 5 concludes and

offers suggestions for future research.

2. A conceptual framework

The determinants of job satisfaction have been approached from a wide range of theor-

etical perspectives, including social psychology, neoclassical theory and management

sociology (Mulinge & Mueller, 1998; Sousa-Poza & Sousa-Poza, 2000; Levy-Garboua

& Montmarquette, 2004; Diaz-Serrano & Vieira, 2005; D’Addioa et al., 2007). Expla-

nations of ‘job satisfaction’ vary. It has been described as an exchange process, where

people enter into work relationships in anticipation of rewards in exchange for their

inputs (Kalleberg, 1977; Mulinge & Mueller, 1998; Van de Vliert & Janssen, 2002).

Sousa-Poza & Sousa-Poza (2000) see it as an input–output function, where satisfaction

results when the outputs (rewards) exceed the inputs (which might include education,

working hours, effort, the physical conditions and the level of danger in the workplace).

The rewards can be intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic rewards include participation in

decision making, autonomy, the facility to communicate, task significance, career

growth and feedback on performance (Herzberg, 1966; Greenberg, 1980). Extrinsic

rewards are more tangible and immediate benefits such as pay, fringe benefits, job

256 K Sartorius et al.

security, working conditions and personal or group relationships (McGuire et al., 2005).

A sub-category of these is labelled ‘convenience extrinsic rewards’, which include living

a convenient distance from work, good working hours, pleasant working surroundings

and an absence of job overload, role ambiguity and conflict (Kalleberg, 1977; Greenberg,

1980; Price & Mueller, 1986).

Other variables influencing job satisfaction could include health (Faragher et al., 2005),

gender based variables (Bender et al., 2005; D’Addioa et al., 2007), education (Vila &

Garcıa-Mora, 2005), age and length of service (Eskildsen et al., 2004; Levy-Garboua

& Montmarquette, 2004). Other possible influences are the level of the employee in

the organisation (Huang & Van de Vliert, 2004), the absence of external opportunities,

family responsibilities and firm-specific training (Mueller & Price, 1990; Mulinge &

Mueller, 1998; Sousa-Poza & Sousa-Poza, 2000).

2.1 Cultural dimensions, humanism and job satisfaction

‘Culture’ can be variously defined. Schein describes it simply as ‘the deeper level of

basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organisation’

(1985:6). Rijamampianina offers a fuller definition, stating that:

Culture is created, acquired and/or learned, developed and passed on by a

group of people, consciously or unconsciously, to subsequent generations.

It includes everything that a group thinks, says, does and makes – its

customs, ideas, mores, habits, traditions, language, and shared systems of

attitudes and feelings – that help to create standards for people to coexist.

(1996:124)

Clearly, one can anticipate that different cultures would prefer different kinds of HRM

(Hofstede, 2001). Considerable evidence points to a collectivist and feminine society

in Mozambique (Granjo, 2003; Webster & Wood, 2005; Webster et al., 2006) that is

likely to prefer more humanist management practices (Hofstede, 2001; Jackson, 2002;

Wooten & Crane, 2004). Collectivism is characteristic of ‘a society in which people

from birth onwards are integrated into strong, cohesive in-groups’ (Voronov & Singer,

2002:260) and is an important factor in the Mozambican workplace. A feminine

society is one in which ‘social gender roles overlap’, and this would also be extended

into the workplace, creating the expectation that employees will be ‘modest, tender

and concerned with the quality of life’ (Hofstede et al., 2009:297). In this type of cultural

context, multinationals need to soften their instrumentalist type HRM programmes to

accommodate the beliefs and feelings of Africans (Prinsloo, 2000; Inyang, 2009).

A traditional contract based view of employment should also be modified to incorporate

an African type of humanism (Broodryk, 2006) that places great emphasis on the fact that

employees are part of a collective. The implication of this is that the feelings and beliefs

of the collective have a major influence on the individual (Nussbaum, 2003). HRM pro-

grammes that soften their instrumentalist position see employees as human beings rather

than as resources and the firm adopts a father-figure role that is expected to be concerned

with the employees’ feelings and well-being. The firm is therefore expected to take care

of employees, help them and be forgiving where genuine mistakes are made. This father-

figure role is also expected to be extended to the welfare of employees’ families and com-

munities (Okpara & Wynn, 2008; Azolukwam & Perkins, 2009). A contract based view

of employees, therefore, must be modified to recognise the importance of interpersonal

relationships, personal dignity, and respect for others, particularly older (by implication,

Creating job satisfaction in Africa 257

wiser) people (Kamoche et al., 2004; Wooten & Crane, 2004; McGuire et al., 2005). Col-

lectively, these characteristics call attention to the need for humanism in the workplace

(Wooten & Crane, 2004; McGuire et al., 2005) and humanist HRM programmes will

develop work ideologies to link individuals to organisations by means of shared reason-

ing, norms and values (Wooten & Crane, 2004).

Note that in the context of this study the term ‘humanist’ means that management (the

firm) are concerned about their employees as human beings, consider their feelings,

and do not view them only in a work related context.

3. Data collection and methodology

The data collected during 2007 and 2008 were largely qualitative. A survey was com-

bined with a case study and the data were analysed using a range of descriptive,

regression and qualitative techniques. The reason for the case study methodology was

to take advantage of the principle of triangulation and gather information about and

examine a broad range of variables influencing job satisfaction. In view of the primarily

qualitative, exploratory nature of the study, the results should be interpreted from the per-

spective of potential usefulness to multinationals investing in Africa, rather than as

definitive or prescriptive (Jackson, 2002).

The questionnaire used for the survey was constructed on the basis of existing question-

naires that had been used by many other researchers to test for job satisfaction, the influ-

ence of rewards and the influence of humanist variables in the workplace (Mulinge &

Mueller, 1998; Sousa-Poza & Sousa-Poza, 2000; Hofstede, 2001; Schneider &

Barsoux, 2003a,b,c). The survey was facilitated and administered by the company man-

agement and the labour union during 2007. A random sample of 181 was collected after

the human resources department and the labour union had administered a survey across

five levels of employee. The sample size (n) of 181 out of 1100 (N) employees was split

across five levels (Level 1, 47.5%; Level 2, 20.4%; Level 3, 8.3%; Level 4, 17.7%; Level

5, 6%). The sample size at each level was proportional to the total number of employees

at that level.

To test the first research question, i.e. to measure the level of job satisfaction, the respon-

dents were asked a single question: ‘Considering everything, how satisfied are you with

your day-to-day job?’ The response to this question was measured on a six-point Likert

scale, ranging from ‘completely satisfied’ (1) to ‘completely dissatisfied’ (6). Four

measures of satisfaction were then aggregated to test the reliability of the single

measure of job satisfaction. Descriptive statistics, combined with qualitative analysis,

were used to analyse the data. The five levels of employees were then regressed

against the dependent variable, job satisfaction, to determine whether there was any

significant relationship between employee level and job satisfaction. A Kruskal–

Wallis test was used to highlight the difference between groups with respect to their

levels of job satisfaction across the five levels of employee.

To test the second research question, i.e. to discover whether a range of well-tested

intrinsic and extrinsic rewards influence job satisfaction in an African context, a

further 14 variables were examined. These were based on the Hofstede (2001) variables

used to test an employee’s perception of the ideal job in a survey involving 100 countries.

Each of the variables was measured on a five-point Likert scale. Descriptive statistics,

combined with some qualitative analysis, were used to analyse the data. To gain a


clearer understanding of how the variables affected different levels of employee, the

ranking of responses at employee level was also analysed.

To test the third research question, i.e. to discover whether humanist variables influence

job satisfaction in an African context, 16 humanist variables were then selected from the

job satisfaction literature of developing countries (Sousa-Poza & Sousa-Poza, 2000).

Each of the variables required a response on a five-point Likert scale. Variables used

to measure the level of corporate humanism were employee perception of tension,

fear, pride, inspiration, caring-concern, support, community welfare and recognition of

service rendered and employee age. To develop the dependent variable, namely the

level of job satisfaction, four measures of job satisfaction were aggregated in order to

develop a more comprehensive measurement of job satisfaction that included elements

of humanism. Ordered logistic regression (univariate and multivariate) using STATA

was then used to analyse the relationship between job satisfaction and each of the 16

predictor variables.

In line with the exploratory approach, a case study method was used to collect further

data from various stakeholders in the organisation. This method allowed the researchers

to investigate and interpret a wider range of variables that could influence job satisfaction

in a company context, and to access additional data, including company documents and

media reports, and review the history of the company from its formation (Leedy, 1993;

Yin, 1994; Leedy & Ormrod, 2001). The data were collected using semi-structured in-

depth interviews with two shop stewards, the paymaster, the HR manager, the HR super-

intendent, the industrial relations superintendent, the internal audit controller, a Level 4

manager, a Level 5 manager and the finance manager. Additional interviewees were a

lawyer, a consultant and the chairman of the labour union. The data collected from

the interviews were written up and subjected to thematic content analysis before being

reviewed by the company.

The study had a number of limitations. First, its exploratory nature means that it raises

more new questions to be investigated than it answers the ones it poses. Second, the

case-based results do not lend themselves to generalising any of the conclusions.

4. Results and discussion

This section describes the findings in answer to the three research questions: the level of

job satisfaction, the importance of intrinsic and traditional extrinsic HRM rewards, and

the influence of a series of humanist variables on job satisfaction.

4.1 The level of job satisfaction

Table 1 shows the level of job satisfaction in the Mozal Company as compared with the

results obtained from 21 countries by Sousa-Poza & Sousa-Poza (2000). Using the six-

point Likert scale described above, the results showed that, of all the countries in the

table, Mozal appeared to have the lowest score for the category of ‘completely satisfied’

and the second lowest score for ‘very satisfied’. Conversely, it had the fourth highest

score for ‘fairly satisfied’ and the second highest score for ‘neither satisfied nor dissatis-

fied’. This indicated that the worker’s level of job satisfaction in this company was most

comparable with that of a series of former Soviet Bloc countries (Eastern Europe) that

have also encouraged foreign based investment in recent decades (Sousa-Poza &

Sousa-Poza, 2000). An alternative measure of job satisfaction, that involved aggregating


the four measures of job satisfaction, appears to support the single measure used (see

figures in parentheses in Table 1).

Further analysis of the company job satisfaction data corroborates Huang & Van de

Vliert’s observation (2004) that job satisfaction can be influenced by the level of the

employee in the organisation. The results of the present study showed that as the

employee level increased from Level 1 (unionised factory workers) to Level 5 (manage-

ment) the level of job satisfaction increased. The results of an ordinal regression

indicated a highly significant relationship (less than 1%) between job satisfaction and

Table 1: Level of job satisfaction – descriptive statistics

Country

Completely

satisfied

(%)

Very

satisfied

(%)

Fairly

satisfied

(%)

Neither. . .

nor (%)

Fairly

dissatisfied

(%)

Very

dissatisfied

(%)

Mozal survey

(n = 181)

(Qs 69–72)∗

3.8

(4.9)

14.4

(16.9)

43.5

(39.4)

27.0

(26.9)

7.5

(8.0)

3.8

(3.7)

Anglo Saxon

United States 15.9 32.5 35.0 7.3 6.4 2.9

Great Britain 13.0 22.6 43.3 10.3 8.1 2.7

New Zealand 11.8 29.4 42.6 9.1 5.2 1.9

Western European

Denmark 24.7 36.9 26.3 7.7 3.6 0.8

France 11.4 22.3 42.2 14.1 7.7 2.3

Germany 7.9 28.6 43.3 14.5 4.3 1.4

Italy 15.5 19.9 43.4 13.1 5.0 3.1

The Netherlands 10.5 37.6 41.8 6.1 2.8 1.2

Norway 10.1 26.6 45.4 12.3 4.6 1.0

Portugal 17.7 21.2 32.5 21.8 3.7 3.1

Spain 13.8 36.0 33.7 11.3 3.7 1.5

Sweden 9.9 30.4 42.1 11.7 4.2 1.7

Switzerland 11.7 40.3 37.1 7.2 2.4 1.3

Eastern European

Hungary 9.1 14.1 39.0 29.6 5.0 3.2

Czech Republic 15.4 13.0 50.5 14.3 4.7 2.1

Slovenia 11.6 15.4 39.7 26.2 5.2 1.9

Bulgaria 10.7 18.4 49.3 13.0 4.8 3.8

Russia 13.2 26.7 19.2 25.5 8.0 7.4

Others

Japan 5.5 24.7 41.6 13.4 9.7 5.1

Israel 27.6 20.8 32.8 10.9 4.9 3.0

Cyprus 21.6 38.2 27.4 10.3 2.0 0.5

Total 13.6 26.5 38.6 13.8 5.1 2.8

∗These were the question numbers on the questionnaire for the values in parentheses. The level of job

satisfaction was also tested by aggregating four different measures to provide a broader alternative.

Source: International figures from Sousa-Poza & Sousa-Poza (2000).


employee level. A Kruskal–Wallis test further confirmed that there was a significant

difference in job satisfaction across the five levels of employee. The chi-square score

was 15.629 (4 degrees of freedom) and the probability that there was no difference

between the levels of satisfaction across the five levels was 0.0036, which is less than

1%. The differential level of satisfaction, further illustrated in Figure 1, clearly demon-

strated that Level 5 employees (management) had significantly higher levels of job sat-

isfaction than the other four levels. (Four measures of job satisfaction were aggregated,

hence a score of 5 indicates a very high level of job satisfaction and 30 a very low one.)

The interviews provided some further insights. In 2007, a manager (Samuel) said the

lowest level of satisfaction was demonstrated by Level 1 and Level 2 employers (who

were the principal backers of the 2001 strike). This statement was supported by a

Level 2 maintenance technician (Gafar) who said that ‘the gap between Level 1 and

Level 2 and management is too big, but Level 4 and 5 are now also feeling their situation

is compromised because they are not unionised and the salary gap between us is getting

smaller’.

4.2 The influence of rewards on job satisfaction

Hofstede’s 14 intrinsic and extrinsic rewards (2001) were all ranked as important deter-

minants of job satisfaction (see Table 2). Although ‘challenging work’ has been rated as a

top retention and motivation strategy in some high technology industries (Horwitz et al.,

2003), it was somewhat surprising to see that the respondents in this study rated this

reward, and also ‘good training opportunities’, more highly than ‘opportunity for high

earnings’ and ‘good fringe benefits’, given the central role of these latter two rewards

as a precursor to the strike of 2001. The importance of job quality, however, is widely

cited in the literature (Herzberg, 1966; Kalleberg, 1977; Mulinge & Mueller, 1998;

Pfeffer, 1998; Sousa-Poza & Sousa-Poza, 2000; Hofstede, 2001; Van de Vliert &

Janssen, 2002). The respondents ranked ‘level of cooperation with others’, a social

extrinsic reward, in second place, which underlines the importance of in-group relation-

ships in a collective workforce (Hofstede, 1994).

Figure 1: Job satisfaction and employee level


‘Job security’ was also highly ranked. In the context of limited alternative employment

opportunities, as well as the responsibility for an extended family, job security is a crucial

household variable in Mozambique (Granjo, 2003; Davis, 2008). Another important

finding was the low ranking of ‘good working relationship with manager’ – the negative

impact of a poor relationship with management is a major source of grievances. A col-

lective workforce, in particular, expects a manager to be ‘one of them’, and to use intui-

tion and be able to understand their feelings (Hofstede, 2001). Lower ranked rewards

indicated the descending importance of self-development (‘training opportunities’),

good physical working conditions, earnings and leisure time. Finally, the respondents

ranked recognition, fringe benefits and a degree of autonomy in the workplace, as

their lowest ranked (but still important) rewards.

Job titles were cited as being of the utmost importance by nearly every one of the inter-

viewees, in support of the findings of Granjo (2003).[0] Job titles were particularly

important for maintenance personnel, who did not like to be called ‘maintainers’ but

rather ‘maintenance technicians’.

To refine the analysis of the responses, the variables influencing the ideal job were ana-

lysed across the five levels of respondent. The results in Table 3 show that the five levels

of employees ranked some of the variables very differently. However, every category of

employee except Level 2 (maintainers) ranked ‘good training opportunities’ as one of the

top six rewards. Level 2 employees felt that the training they had received should have

resulted in the same pay as expatriates. They were also unhappy that they were called

‘maintainers’ and not ‘maintenance technicians’ (Gafar, maintainer; Dumi, HR

manager; Mark, HR superintendent; Tomas, industrial relations superintendent).

Table 2: Rewards influencing the perception of the ideal job – descriptive statistics

(n = 181)

–Binomial exact – Means and

ranking

Reward∗ Obs. Median

[95% confidence

interval] Mean Rank

Challenging work 170 2 1 2 1.77 1

Level of cooperation with others 176 2 1 2 1.81 2

Good training opportunities 177 2 1 2 1.86 3

Job security 176 2 1 2 1.93 4

Good working relationship with manager 177 2 1 2 1.94 5

Fully use skills 172 2 2 2 1.95 6

Live in desirable area 177 2 1 2 1.95 7

Good physical working conditions 179 2 1 2 1.96 8

Opportunity for high earnings 171 2 1 2 1.96 9

Sufficient leisure time 176 2 2 2 1.98 10

Opportunity for advancement 172 2 2 2 2.01 11

Recognition for good work 177 2 2 2 2.03 12

Good fringe benefits 175 2 2 2 2.07 13

Freedom to adopt own approach 175 2 2 2 2.07 14

∗Rewards based on Hofstede (2001).


The importance of physical conditions was especially highly ranked by Level 1 operators.

They felt that the working conditions were exhausting because they had had no similar

experience in their working life, and some felt that they were dangerous (Brief &

Weiss, 2002; Granjo, 2003). JJ Muhai (an internal audit controller) said his family

members could not understand why he was exhausted at the end of a day’s work, and

Mulayo (the paymaster) said that many workers felt there was danger because they remem-

bered how dangerous it had been when their families worked in South African mines.

Although the survey ranked many of the rewards higher than earnings and fringe benefits,

the case study interviews contradicted these findings. Four interviewees offered the

opinion that a prime reason for the strike of 2001 was that Levels 1 and 2 thought

they were underpaid relative to the training they received, and these four also said that

Mozambican employees should be paid the same as their expatriate colleagues

(Samuel, manager; Dumi, HR manager; Mark, HR superintendent; Tomas, industrial

relations superintendent). Two interviewees pointed out that even management was

now complaining that the salary gap between them and the workers was being unfairly

reduced because they were not unionised (Elias, chairman of labour union; Gafar, main-

tainer), and three observed that fringe benefits such as food allowance, provident fund,

study assistance and particularly medical aid and programmes for HIV/AIDS were

very important (Elias, chairman of labour union; Gafar, maintainer; JJ Muhai, internal

audit controller).

4.3 How do humanist variables influence job satisfaction?

To test the third research question the humanist variables listed in Table 4 were indivi-

dually regressed on job satisfaction. The results highlighted some interesting features of

the workplace. Quite surprisingly, the level of tension in the job situation (TENSE) and

the management style of the immediate superior (MANAGER) did not appear to influ-

ence job satisfaction significantly, which contradicts the findings of Hofstede (2001).

Another finding that contradicts Hofstede’s is that job satisfaction was negatively

Table 3: Ranking of ideal job variables – descriptive statistics (n = 181)

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Challenging work 2 6 2 1 1

Level of cooperation with others 1 5 1 4 5

Good training opportunities 5 11 4 5 6

Job security 4 7 11 2 13

Good working relationship with manager 6 8 6 8 7

Fully use skills 13 13 3 6 4

Live in desirable area 8 2 9 9 11

Good physical working conditions 3 12 13 3 8

Opportunity for high earnings 10 1 8 13 2

Sufficient leisure time 9 4 7 12 14

Opportunity for advancement 12 10 5 7 9

Recognition for good work 7 14 10 10 10

Good fringe benefits 14 3 12 14 3

Freedom to adopt own approach 11 9 14 11 12


influenced because workers were afraid to disagree with their managers (AFRAID p ,

10%), and that it was important to have a good relationship with the manager. However,

Mulinge & Mueller (1998) suggest that in some collectivist countries the ability to com-

municate and be heard by management is more important than the management style,

and Granjo (2003) suggests that workers in Mozambique may accept autocracy and

power inequality in the workplace as a fact of life. Questioning the judgement of a

superior could be taken as offensive and lead to conflict, which would disrupt the

harmony of the workplace (Nussbaum, 2003; Kamoche et al., 2004; Broodryk, 2006).

Other variables that had a significant positive influence on job satisfaction were the

respondents’ level of pride in the company (PRIDE), being inspired by the company

(INSPIRESME), their feeling that the company’s values were similar to theirs

(VALUES) and the perception that Mozal cared for their well-being (MOZCARES 1).

Finally, additional factors positively influencing job satisfaction were the perceptions

that the company cared about their opinions (MOZCARES 2), helped them as employees

(HELPSME), and had invested in their local communities (COMMUNITY). Finally, the

age of employees (AGE) was significantly negatively correlated with job satisfaction.

The significant variables, identified in the univariate analysis, were then used as the basis

for constructing a multivariate model (see Table 5). In the multivariate results only two

variables emerged as significant. This further analysis showed that job satisfaction was sig-

nificantly positively influenced as a result of workers being inspired (INSPIRESME) by the

company (p , 10%). There also appeared to be a highly significant negative relationship

between the age (AGE) of employees and job satisfaction (p , 5%). This confirms find-

ings from other collectivist African countries where age is negatively correlated with job

satisfaction (Eskildsen et al., 2004) and older employees often feel their status in the

company is not properly recognised (Nussbaum, 2003; Kamoche et al., 2004).

Table 4: Humanist variables influencing job satisfaction – ordered logistic

regression (univariate)

Predictor Odds ratio Std err. Z p > z

[95% confidence

interval] Significance

TENSE –0.2215232 0.2117084 –1.05 0.295 –0.636464 0.1934176

INTENTION –0.5180336 0.1972114 –2.63 0.009 –0.9045609 –0.1315064 ∗

AFRAID –0.3162494 0.1709976 –1.85 0.064 –0.6513985 0.0188996 ∗∗

MANAGER 0.0651599 0.1485009 0.44 0.661 –0.2258965 0.3562164

EFFORT 0.2517099 0.1717664 1.47 0.143 –0.084946 0.5883658

PRIDE 0.8230633 0.1684091 4.89 0.000 0.4929876 1.153139 ∗

INSPIRESME 0.9702437 0.2164708 4.48 0.000 0.5459688 1.394519 ∗

VALUES 0.4892577 0.1712613 2.86 0.004 0.1535918 0.8249237 ∗

MOZCARES 1 0.6527916 0.1623787 4.02 0.000 0.3345352 0.971048 ∗

MOZCARES 2 0.9860946 0.1960673 5.03 0.000 0.6018097 1.37038 ∗

HELPSME 0.6866854 0.1619803 4.24 0.000 0.3692099 1.004161 ∗

FORGIVESME 0.4633704 0.1491115 3.11 0.002 0.1711172 0.7556236 ∗

COMMUNITY 0.4027492 0.1769409 2.28 0.023 0.0559514 0.7495471 ∗

ENVIRONMENT 0.1240686 0.170295 0.73 0.466 –0.2097035 0.4578408

SERVICE –0.3230725 0.1890899 –1.71 0.088 –0.6936818 0.0475368 ∗∗

AGE –0.4894568 0.1713452 –2.86 0.004 –0.8252872 –0.1536265 ∗

∗Significant at the 5% level. ∗∗Significant at the 10% level.


The interviews, conducted during 2007, revealed some additional humanist variables that

were strongly responsible for lower levels of job satisfaction before the strike of 2001.

Nine interviewees expressed the opinion that management were ‘not human’ before the

strike in 2001, but were ‘aggressive’, ‘military’ and ‘racist’, would only talk but not

listen, and workers were scared (Daniel, lawyer; JJ Muhai, internal audit controller;

Gafar, maintainer; Riaan, finance manager; Enrique, superintendent; Dumi, HR

manager; Mark, HR superintendent; Tomas, industrial relations superintendent; Lino,

paymaster). Seven said that the Company was now communicating with its staff,

sharing its concerns with them, using the public and internal communications to cover

news such as family births and deaths, and on the whole seeing workers ‘more as

humans’ (Samuel, manager; Dumi, HR manager; Mark, HR superintendent; Tomas,

industrial relations superintendent; JJ Muhai, internal audit controller; Gafar, maintainer;

Lino, paymaster). And, finally, one said that despite these changes many workers still felt

the workplace was over-regimented and over-structured (Daniel, lawyer).

The results demonstrate the strength of the employees’ feelings about the importance of

humanism in the workplace (Kamoche et al., 2004). When job satisfaction was measured

using four aggregated measures, one of the questions asked was ‘whether their families

were satisfied with Mozal as an employer’. Interestingly, the respondents’ level of job

satisfaction was identical to their families’ perceptions of the company, indicating

the importance of the role of family in a developing collectivist country (Mulinge

& Mueller, 1998; Granjo, 2003; Carmichael & Rijamampianina, 2007; Dimba &

K’obonyo, 2007; Horwitz, 2007).

5. Conclusion and recommendations

The paper has illustrated some of the difficulties that confront multinationals when they

implement HRM programmes in a developing African country. The lesson that has been

Table 5: Humanist variables influencing job satisfaction – ordered logistic

regression (multivariate)

Predictor Coefficient Std err. z p > z

[95% confidence

interval] Significance

INTENTION –0.3638956 0.2293895 –1.59 0.113 –0.8134908 0.0856997

AFRAID –0.0585321 0.2039804 –0.29 0.774 –0.4583264 0.3412622

PRIDE 0.2212715 0.2530603 0.87 0.382 –0.2747177 0.7172606

INSPIRESME 0.6006747 0.3112362 1.93 0.054 –0.0093371 1.210687 ∗∗

VALUES –0.170849 0.2458507 –0.69 0.487 –0.6527076 0.3110096

MOZCARES 1 0.0602553 0.2507922 0.24 0.810 –0.4312884 0.551799

MOZCARES 2 0.3676478 0.3316529 1.11 0.268 –0.2823799 1.017676

HELPSME 0.2366562 0.2257508 1.05 0.294 –0.2058073 0.6791197

FORGIVESME 0.1396051 0.2023747 0.69 0.490 –0.2570421 0.5362522

COMMUNITY –0.1456978 0.2643735 –0.55 0.582 –0.6638604 0.3724648

SERVICE –0.2978317 0.2315025 –1.29 0.198 –0.7515683 0.155905

AGE –0.4774027 0.2185087 –2.18 0.029 –0.9056718 –0.0491335 ∗

∗Significant at the 5% level. ∗∗Significant at the 10% level.

Notes: Ordered logistic regression. Number of obs = 108; LR chi2 (12) = 51.49; Prob . chi2 = 0.0000;

Log likelihood = –80.672879; Pseudo R2= 0.2419.


learned is that local employees are at least as motivated by traditional extrinsic rewards

as their developed country counterparts – both our study and the literature support this

observation They want, however, to earn these rewards in a more humanist environment,

where caring about people is visibly demonstrated. Furthermore, they are less concerned

about rules than about the way the rules are administered. The case study interviews also

revealed that none of the technical standards and production procedures (for the pro-

duction of aluminium) had been changed – they could not be or the product would

not be of the necessary quality and the production environment would be too dangerous.

The level of job satisfaction showed that there were some similarities with former Soviet

Bloc countries that have also experienced foreign based HRM programmes that were

superimposed on their predominantly collectivist local workforces. The complex

nature of job satisfaction was also underlined by significant differences across employee

levels. A combination of these insights suggests that company HRM programmes need to

be targeted to specific levels in an organisation, and to accommodate the requirements of

the local culture.

The results support the contention that the traditional extrinsic and intrinsic rewards that

form the basis of instrumentalist HRM are equally important motivators of job satisfac-

tion in an African context. The Mozal Company, the focus of this study, responded to the

challenge of the strike in 2001 by completely re-investigating their employment package.

The findings showed that to achieve job satisfaction in its workforce it was important for

the company not only to modify the rewards but also to adopt a more humanist manage-

ment style. The approach taken by South African Breweries (SAB) when they partnered

with a local brewery in China as part of their internationalisation strategy is an example

of the extent to which organisational success rests on implementing locally adapted strat-

egies – and a way of doing it successfully (Vermeulen, 2001). The key element of the

SAB success lay in the fact that they absorbed and identified key cultural elements

and ways of going about business before implementing HRM and other practices. Huma-

nist variables, therefore, appeared to mediate the effectiveness of traditional rewards, as

well as to support a central tenet of African tradition, namely the concept of ubuntu or

‘humanness’, which stresses that a ‘person is a person through other people’. The

improvement in job satisfaction after the 2001 strike, therefore, was due as much to

the change in management’s attitude to and communication with the employees as to

the revised compensation package. A major lesson that was learned was that manage-

ment was required to understand the culture and feelings of their workers better, in

much the way that Vermeulen (2001) describes. Finally, an important challenge

identified in the study was the status attached to age in the workplace and the need recon-

cile this with added value.

Many of the variables used in this study to test the importance of humanism in the

African workplace could be more vigorously investigated across a wide range of

countries and technological conditions, and the humanist variables should be tested

against the tenets of the African tradition of ubuntu in order to examine the possibility

of developing specifically African HRM programmes.

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Creating job satisfaction in Africa: A case study from Mozambique