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The influence of normative whiteness in the South African private sector
Thirty years into democracy and notwithstanding the requirements of the Employment Equity Act (Act 55 of 1998), the South African private sector remains largely under the control of White executives, while Black African people constitute less than 20% of senior and top management (Commission for Emp...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English English |
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Graduate School of Business (GSB)
2025
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| _version_ | 1867613527500390400 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Keene-Young, Bronwyn |
| author2 | April, Kurt |
| author_browse | April, Kurt Keene-Young, Bronwyn |
| author_facet | April, Kurt Keene-Young, Bronwyn |
| author_sort | Keene-Young, Bronwyn |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | Thirty years into democracy and notwithstanding the requirements of the Employment Equity Act (Act 55 of 1998), the South African private sector remains largely under the control of White executives, while Black African people constitute less than 20% of senior and top management (Commission for Employment Equity, 2023). Academic research (Myeza & April, 2021) as well as frequent anecdotal reports in mass and social media, indicate that Black professionals continue to experience racism in the private sector workplace, although this racism is often covert in nature and thus escapes the everyday understanding of the term. Studies by scholars of covert racism have established how normative Whiteness in society has operated to exclude or reduce the socio-economic prospects of Black people (Sue, 2010), but is rendered invisible through the establishment of ‘colour-blind' norms (Bonilla-Silva, 2018). However, there has been limited organisational research into how normative Whiteness, by maintaining an appearance of professional neutrality, perpetuates racism in the workplace (Nkomo, 1992, 2021). In addition, few studies on racism in organisations include the testimony of White executives as the primary data source. In this thesis I attempt to address this gap in the literature by using hermeneutic phenomenology within a critical theory framework to analyse how 35 White male and female executives at senior and top management level perceive: (i) Black professionals and their lived experiences and (ii) themselves and other White professionals; in the context of the employment equity imperatives of the South African private sector. As a White South African woman with over 15 years of experience in executive management, I include a self-reflexive approach both in the conducting of the interviews with White executives, as well as in the phenomenological analysis of the interview data. The significance of my research is that it shifts the study of racism to the locus of workplace power- White executives - and assesses how the normalisation of covert racism and Whiteness influences the perpetuation of organisational discrimination against Black professionals. My research shows that, notwithstanding ostensible support for the idea of employment equity, White executives' perceptions of Black people are shaped by stereotypes which perpetuate covert racism and the marginalisation of Black (particularly Black African) professionals. Concomitantly, White executives unknowingly establish Whiteness as a neutral standard for professional advancement and success in the South African private sector workplace. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41634 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | English eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:37:34.150Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Graduate School of Business (GSB) |
| publisherStr | Graduate School of Business (GSB) |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/41634 The influence of normative whiteness in the South African private sector Keene-Young, Bronwyn April, Kurt Private sector, normative whiteness Thirty years into democracy and notwithstanding the requirements of the Employment Equity Act (Act 55 of 1998), the South African private sector remains largely under the control of White executives, while Black African people constitute less than 20% of senior and top management (Commission for Employment Equity, 2023). Academic research (Myeza & April, 2021) as well as frequent anecdotal reports in mass and social media, indicate that Black professionals continue to experience racism in the private sector workplace, although this racism is often covert in nature and thus escapes the everyday understanding of the term. Studies by scholars of covert racism have established how normative Whiteness in society has operated to exclude or reduce the socio-economic prospects of Black people (Sue, 2010), but is rendered invisible through the establishment of ‘colour-blind' norms (Bonilla-Silva, 2018). However, there has been limited organisational research into how normative Whiteness, by maintaining an appearance of professional neutrality, perpetuates racism in the workplace (Nkomo, 1992, 2021). In addition, few studies on racism in organisations include the testimony of White executives as the primary data source. In this thesis I attempt to address this gap in the literature by using hermeneutic phenomenology within a critical theory framework to analyse how 35 White male and female executives at senior and top management level perceive: (i) Black professionals and their lived experiences and (ii) themselves and other White professionals; in the context of the employment equity imperatives of the South African private sector. As a White South African woman with over 15 years of experience in executive management, I include a self-reflexive approach both in the conducting of the interviews with White executives, as well as in the phenomenological analysis of the interview data. The significance of my research is that it shifts the study of racism to the locus of workplace power- White executives - and assesses how the normalisation of covert racism and Whiteness influences the perpetuation of organisational discrimination against Black professionals. My research shows that, notwithstanding ostensible support for the idea of employment equity, White executives' perceptions of Black people are shaped by stereotypes which perpetuate covert racism and the marginalisation of Black (particularly Black African) professionals. Concomitantly, White executives unknowingly establish Whiteness as a neutral standard for professional advancement and success in the South African private sector workplace. 2025-08-28T07:31:17Z 2025-08-28T07:31:17Z 2025 2025-08-28T07:22:44Z Thesis / Dissertation Doctoral PhD http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41634 en eng application/pdf Graduate School of Business (GSB) Faculty of Commerce University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | Private sector, normative whiteness Keene-Young, Bronwyn The influence of normative whiteness in the South African private sector |
| thesis_degree_str | Doctoral |
| title | The influence of normative whiteness in the South African private sector |
| title_full | The influence of normative whiteness in the South African private sector |
| title_fullStr | The influence of normative whiteness in the South African private sector |
| title_full_unstemmed | The influence of normative whiteness in the South African private sector |
| title_short | The influence of normative whiteness in the South African private sector |
| title_sort | influence of normative whiteness in the south african private sector |
| topic | Private sector, normative whiteness |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/41634 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT keeneyoungbronwyn theinfluenceofnormativewhitenessinthesouthafricanprivatesector AT keeneyoungbronwyn influenceofnormativewhitenessinthesouthafricanprivatesector |