'Qualified to Work': Anthropological Insights into Employee Empowerment

bibliographic database
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Periodical article

Title:	'Qualified to Work': Anthropological Insights into Employee Empowerment
Author:	Herselman, Stephne
Year:	2006
Periodical:	Anthropology Southern Africa
Volume:	29
Issue:	3-4
Pages:	132-142
Language:	English
Geographic term:	South Africa
Subjects:	empowerment Blacks professional workers insurance Labor and Employment Anthropology and Archaeology
Abstract:	This paper draws on information obtained during research that focused on the unsatisfactory output in terms of persistency rates of a group of black financial consultants of a life insurance company in South Africa. It concerned a group of highly professional and committed people, all 'previously disadvantaged' members of society and it appeared that their relatively poor performance in relation to their white counterparts had more to do with the market in which they operated than with their competence, commitment and performance. The paper considers various qualities, ideas and actions associated with the position of the group as financial consultants in the life insurance industry in terms of the notion of empowerment. Empowerment and its relevance for the qualities and behaviour of the consultants are interpreted in terms of four dimensions: empowerment through significant others, through political systems, through business, and self-empowerment. The paper is based on research carried out in 2002 and 2003. Bibliogr., notes., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract]