Since the 1990s, economic growth has been chosen as the path to inclusive prosperity in South Africa, and greater participation in the labour market is seen as key to socio economic upliftment. Though not always expressed explicitly, what seems to matter primarily is that employment is created, not as much what this employment looks like. To date, this strategy has had limited success: Poverty in South Africa has increased by 3.1 million to 30.4 million between 2011 and 2016, and directly affects over half the population. However,it is not only the unemployed who are poor, low income earners also get trapped in poverty cycles. An increase in labour participation rates without at least equal focus on what this employment looks like can thus result in less sustainable livelihoods and in work which does not qualify as decent, i.e. work which respects human dignity, secures an adequate livelihood and supports individuals and their families to fully develop their capacities and talents.

Why Work Psychology?

With its understanding of human behaviour, of people at work and a strong research, work psychology is ideally placed to complement economic knowledge so as to develop more applicable models resulting in more effective and fair economic policy. Its roots in psychology make it fundamentally human-centred. Discipline knowledge about people at work helps in the research work itself, for example, by building conducive conditions for interaction between research stakeholders to enable context-embedded, socially engaged and impactful research. A limited understanding of economic theory can serve as an advantage to innovative thinking and a disruption to dominant discourses. On a practical level, humanitarian work psychology has brought organisational psychology into the policy space by moving its focus from the corporate organisation to societies. In South Africa, the value work psychology could provide in this space, however, is not yet widely known.

SIOP UN Committee: Towards a Global Living Wage through Humanitarian Work Psychology (Dr. Stu Carr)

How It Integrates Into the Bigger Picture

The research programme addresses the key strategic area of using science for poverty alleviation outlined in the National Research and Development Strategy (2002) and the “human and social dynamics for development” area in the Department of Science and Technology’s Ten Year Innovation Plan (2008). It falls within the National Development Plan’s (2012) priority area (creating decent work and sustainable livelihoods). Internationally, it aligns with the International Labour Organisation’s decent work agenda and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 8 (decent work and economic growth).

The Logo

NRF/DSI SARChI Chair: Creation of Decent Work and Sustainable Livelihood logo

Loosely based on the SDG 8 logo (inclusive economic growth), heart symbolises focus on creating sustainable livelihood rather than economic growth, and human centred development through work. Unlike in SDG 8, symbol pillars not increasing continuously from left to right, indicates that this growth will not be continuous, but rather there will be progress and setbacks as indicated by the dark blue line with a general upwards trend.