Strategies and Revitalisation for survival of Trade Unions in Africa: The Role of Information Communication Technologies F.G KWAKWA 22594396 Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in Labour Relations Management at the Vaal Triangle Campus of the North-West University Supervisor: Dr Elsabé Keyser Co-supervisor: Dr Raqual Rego (Research Fellow at SOCIUS-ISEG – University of Lisbon, Portugal) MAY 2018 DECLARATION I, Francina Girley Kwakwa, declare that the “STRATEGIES AND REVITALISATION FOR SURVIVAL OF TRADE UNIONS IN AFRICA: THE ROLE OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES” is my own work and that all the sources I have used or quoted in this dissertation and acknowledged by means of complete references. i LANGUAGE EDITING CERTIFICATE Ms Linda Scott did the language editing for this dissertation. See Annexure B ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11). I am thankful to God for granting me the wisdom and the knowledge in completion of my Master’s degree. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). I would like to express my gratitude to the following people who contributed to my study: My supervisor, Dr Elsabé Keyser, for her support, patience, guidance and encouraging me throughout this study. My co-supervisor, Dr Raquel Rego, for contributing to this study. My language editor, Ms Linda Scott, for understanding and being willing to assist in conducting the language editing for me. My parents, Mr M.W and Mrs N.E Kwakwa, for always believing in me and giving me the opportunity to further my studies. I am so blessed to have such wonderful parents. My family and friends, for supporting, encouraging and keeping me in their prayers. To Prof Herman Van der Merwe, Mrs Helei Jooste and Mrs Jani Van der Vyver for their support and for inspiring me with my studies. iii COMMENTS The readers are advised to take note of the following: This dissertation uses the reference and editorial style as prescribed by the American Psychology Association (APA) (6th ed.) unless indicated otherwise. The publication manual of APA is in line with the policy of the Programme in Labour Relations Management at the Vaal Triangle Campus of the North-West University to use APA style documents as from December 2011. Chapters 1, 3 and 4 will use the American Psychological Association (APA) reference and editorial style. Chapter 2 prescribed editorial and reference style of the National and International Journal of Labour Relations and may be submitted for journal revision and publications if possible. The dissertation will consist of two research articles. iv SUMMARY African trade unions are faced with dramatic trade union membership decline and some of the trade unions have seen the need to use information and communication technology (ICT) as a strategy to reverse the membership decline. There has been a discussion based on the way trade unions use the new ICT, particularly the Internet. However, the discussion has been restricted to Anglophone countries. Countries such as Nigeria and South Africa have rendered few studies based on the ICT strategies for trade unions, despite the fact that they recognise the importance of communication and its impact. ICT is an important contribution for union revitalisation. Different researchers state that the ICTs are less costly and faster than traditional ways. The Internet can be used as a means of internal communication within trade unions by offering membership services, e-learning and news. In addition, it can be used as external communication in national and international unions to promote better communication using blogs, chats and Skype or link to Twitter and Facebook (Greene, Hogan & Grieco, 2003). This study aims to monitor unions’ Internet use and analyses the website content of trade unions in the top five economies African countries, namely Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria and Angola. The Internet usage and the content of union websites were analysed by using the typology of Rego, Alves, Naumann and Silva (2014). Therefore, the content analysis was applied as Rego et al. (2014) suggested in their study. There have been several studies on the impact of Internet and ICTs on private and public organisations, but fewer studies on the trade union strategies and revitalisation for survival in the new information era in the top five economies Africa countries. The findings show that a statistically significant difference was found between the content, interactivity and form, for instance the probability value is ρ<0.05. For this study, one-way ANOVA was used. Key words and terms: trade unions, trade union membership, trade union density, information era, revitalisation, strategies, information communication technologies, the Internet, websites. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION…………………………………………………………………………………….I LANGUAGE EDITING CERTIFICATE .................................................................................................. II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................... III COMMENTS ........................................................................................................................................................ IV SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................................................ V LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................................................... X LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................................................... XI CHAPTER 1.......................................................................................................................................................... XI 1.1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 RATIONALE AND JUSTIFICATION ................................................................................. 1 1.3 PURPOSE STATEMENT ........................................................................................................... 9 1.3.1 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES .............................................................................................................. 9 1.4 RESEARCH METHOD ............................................................................................................... 9 1.4.1 Literature review ............................................................................................................................... 9 1.4.2 Research methodology .................................................................................................................... 9 1.4.3 Research participants ..................................................................................................................... 10 1.4.4 Content analysis of the data ......................................................................................................... 10 1.4.4.1 Content dimension .......................................................................................................................... 11 vi 1.4.4.2 Interactivity dimension .................................................................................................................. 12 1.4.4.3 Formal dimension ........................................................................................................................... 12 1.5 ONLINE ETHNOGRAPHY .................................................................................................... 13 1.6 ETHICAL ASPECTS OF THE RESEARCH ................................................................... 13 1.7 CHAPTER DIVISION ............................................................................................................... 13 REFERENCE LIST ........................................................................................................................................... 14 CHAPTER 2.......................................................................................................................................................... 19 ARTICLE 1: THE REVITALISATION OF THE LABOUR MOVEMENT IN NIGERIA, EGYPT, SOUTH AFRICA, ALGERIA AND ANGOLA: THE USE OF ICT .......................... 19 ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................................................... 19 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................................. 20 LABOUR RELATIONS SYSTEMS, DECLINE OF TRADE UNION MEMBERSHIP AND TRADE UNIONS IN THE FIVE LARGEST ECONOMIES IN AFRICA ................................. 22 ICT and revitalisation: Old and new methods .............................................................................................. 26 STRATEGIES FOR REVITALISATION ................................................................................................ 30 Top-down strategies ............................................................................................................................................