Browsing by Author "Oosthuizen, Marius"

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    Institutionalising social dialogue: a micro-foundational perspective of the national economic and labour council of South Africa
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-12) Oosthuizen, Marius; Ajam, Tania; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. School of Public Leadership.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY : This study examined The National Economic and Labour Council (Nedlac) of South Africa, from a micro-foundational institutional perspective, within a multi-layer framework, and in so doing, identifies the possible limitations for consensus-building that arise from inadequate management of competing logics and the required frame formation during social dialogue. Nedlac emerged during South Africa’s transition to democracy in 1994 and was tasked with facilitating consensus on economic and development policy. By examining the microfoundational interactions between policy actors in the institutional field and studying the historical employment of frames, frame conflict, and frame formation processes of policy actors in the economic policy discourse, the study examined institutional entrepreneurship, cast as integrative leadership activities by constituency representatives, undertaken in pursuit of consensus-building, or frame formation at Nedlac. The study interpreted these developments against the backdrop of South Africa's political economic context and addressed the need for scholars and practitioners to better understand institutional leadership within the context of policy deliberation as part of the institutional life of pluralistic democratic societies. The results contribute to a micro-foundational perspective of institutions, to theorise about cross-sectoral social dialogue, and in terms of practice, to policymaking in contexts such as South Africa that are beset with conflicting interests. The results of the study have implications for institutional design, for discursive approaches to policymaking and mediation, and leadership practices in multi-sectoral institutions. It enhances comprehension of the relationship between theory and practice and offers policymakers and institutional leaders in South Africa and elsewhere, executable insights into new approaches to consensus-building. The study proposes institutionalize social dialogue, underpinned by reflexive frame formation, as a means for social dialogue for securing the social contract and in response to new challenges emerging in policymaking and in public leadership as a result of increasingly complex, multi-stakeholder demands. It recognises that institutional pluralism must be accommodated and better understood by policymakers and institutional leaders and for the design and management of pluralistic institutions.