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24 - Modernity Meets Tradition: Managing the Work–Family Interface in South Africa

from Part V - Cultures within Cultures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2018

By
Nicole Dodd  and
Justin van der Merwe
Edited by
Kristen M. Shockley ,
Winny Shen  and
Ryan C. Johnson
Kristen M. Shockley
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
Winny Shen
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo, Ontario
Ryan C. Johnson
Affiliation:
Ohio University
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Summary

South Africa is traditionally viewed as being deeply divided along racial lines. However, closer inspection reveals that this is too simplistic a treatment of a complex reality—differences arise more along cultural lines than racial ones. In fact, many linguistic and ethnic groups who share common historical and geographic heritages exist within the country. As a result, a cultures within culture approach is instructive when describing the work-family interface in South Africa. We begin by exploring South African notions of family, care, and dependency across African (e.g., Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Swati, Sotho, Venda, Tsonga and Ndebele), Coloured, and White cultural groups, and our analysis reveals that family role obligations related to birth, death, coming-of-age, illness and marriage differ across these cultural groups. This is closely tied to how cultures conceptualize dependents, burden of care, and role expectations and has implications for the work-family interface.
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of the Global Work–Family Interface , pp. 436 - 453
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2018

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