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Journal of Advances in Humanities and Social Sciences JAHSS
2019, 5(3): 113-128
PRIMARY RESEARCH
The experience of Ubuntu to a hospitality organisation:
Scale development and validation
Thembisile Molose *
Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Cape Town, South Africa
Keywords Abstract
Culture
Organisational performance
Measurement scales
Ubuntu
South Africa
Received: 3 April 2019
Accepted: 7 May 2019
Published: 28 June 2019
The objective of this paper was to identify what hospitality frontline managers experience as Ubuntu and subse-
quently presents a compact assessment scale for measuring frontline managers’ experience of Ubuntu culture to a
hospitality organisation in South Africa. A mixed-method research design encompassing qualitative and quantita-
tive studies resulted in 26 itemmeasures for the Ubuntu concept. The two studies were conducted to test aspects of
a fourfold model of Ubuntu which integrates compassion (care, empathy, being there physically and emotionally),
survival (ability to survive in spite of dificulties, a shared will to survive and focus), group solidarity/collectivism
(the idea of achieving collectively; organisation exists to beneit employee community), and respect and dignity
(valuing the worth of others). In Study 1, scales were developed to measure these aspects. Relationships among
the four values of Ubuntu and with variables considered their antecedents were examined in Study 2. Results of
a factor analysis suggested that, as predicted by the fourfold model, Ubuntu values are empirically distinguish-
able dimensions that can be experienced simultaneously by frontline managers. The importance of encouraging
the study of Ubuntu as a culture, both in research and to the organisation, is discussed. The implication of this
research is that, fostering Ubuntu’s compassion and collectiveness as (a “gift that Southern Africa can give to the
world)” could enable organisations to attract employees who feel authenticity from managers that align with their
individual values, which then generate positive attitudes and work behaviours in employees. Therefore, South
Africa’s hospitality sector needs to foster stronger team relationships, through the authenticity of support by the
supervisor and social activities. As such, the study suggested that the culture of Ubuntu, if consciously harnessed
can play a pivotal role in managing diverse workforce.
© 2019 TAF Publishing. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION
Statement of the Research Problem
Ubuntu in this study is accepted as deined by Khoza who
deined it as “an African value system that means human-
ness, which is characterised by caring, sharing compas-
sion, communocracy and related predispositions” (Khoza,
1994). Almost all deinitions of Ubuntu found in the lit-
erature (Battle,1996;Broodryk,2005;Mangaliso,2001)
have three common denominations which are principally
concerned with actions that are welcoming, accommodat-
ing, sharing and sustaining human relations and behaviour.
Familiar connotations like Umu-ntu ngumu-ntu ngabantu,
which means, “each individual’s humanity is expressed in
relations with others” (Battle,1996;Naeem & Hameed,
2018) or a person can only be a person through others
(Mbigi,1997;Mertz,2007), are common among the Zulus
and Xhosa people. The term Ntu (this person) translates to
kindness, and African humanness (Qobo & Nyathi,2016).
Most Zulu and Xhosa people in South Africa also use terms
like ‘Sawubona’ when they greet which simply means, I see
you (as a human) and ‘Simunye’ (meaning, we are one) as
a show of Ubuntu. For Mbigi (2000), the literal meaning
of Ubuntu is “I am because you are–I can only be a person
through others”. Tutu (2011) remarks that Ubuntu is the
essence of being human, and an important part of the gift
that Africa has to give to the world.
In view of the above, Ubuntu in this study is translated as:
• The African principles of Ubuntu (humanness) may not be
*corresponding author: Thembisile Molose
†email: moloset@cput.ac.za
The Author(s). Published by TAF Publishing. This is an Open Access article distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
2019 T. Molose – The experience of Ubuntu to a . . . . 114
emphasised to the same extent in other contexts, such as
Western countries (Broodryk,2005;Khoza,2004).
• Ubuntu captures the essence of what it means to be hu-
man. It is the sense of responsibility towards the other that
makes Ubuntu resonate with African beliefs and cultural
systems (Khoza,1994;Yazici,2016) and Broodryk (2005).
• Ubuntu (African humanness) relects humanity with a uni-
versal appeal of southern Africa traditional community val-
ues; (in most sections of southern Africa, the burdens of
the community are shared such that no one is prejudiced)
(Broodryk,2005;Cuyugan et al.,2017;Khoza,1994;Qobo
& Nyathi,2016).
• In Ubuntu (African humanness), everything is done to put
the interest of the community ahead of the interests of an
individual. Its premise is based on sellessness and com-
mitment of an individual to one’s community more than
individual achievement and therefore, the tendency seems
quite different from the notion of humanness generally
(Broodryk,2005;Khoza,1994;Mgidlana,1997;Qobo & Ny-
athi,2016).
The above translations encapsulate the essence of the phi-
losophy of Ubuntu. Nevertheless, the fundamental value of
Ubuntu and how it manifests could present a narrow inter-
est, at the same time it may go a long way in a complex soci-
ety such as South Africa. Problems identiied in the South
African hotel industry appear to be centred on managers
who do not have an understanding or knowledge of the var-
ious cultures and languages of the employees (Nicolaides,
2010). Studies show that there is a lack of genuine attempts
by managers to hear or understand what the frontline em-
ployees have to say. The point being emphasised in this re-
view mirrors on the strength of the behavioural expression
of Ubuntu and group consensus, which provides employ-
ees within a service business context to air their views, be-
cause reaching group consensus about collective-work per-
formance improvements may be central to Ubuntu.
The literature on African culture, and various manage-
ment styles, suggest that Ubuntu has the potential to de-
termine the levels of employees’ commitment and work
performance improvements by assessing who exhibits
collectivist-cultural values. The National Tourism Service
Excellence Strategy developed in 2011 by the National De-
partment of Tourism (NDT) in collaboration with the Na-
tional Department of Arts and Culture in South Africa iden-
tiied Ubuntu as one of the building blocks that tourists as
customers associate with in their consumpution of hospi-
tality products and services (The National Department of
Tourism,2011). Conceptually, hospitality is premised on
welcoming and serving strangers by hosts (Westmoreland,
2008) is typically featured in an Ubuntu hospitality con-
text. In Africa, it is traditionally widely accepted that a host
will open his/her home to total strangers, giving them a
place to stay and a meal to eat although he/she knows lit-
tle about them (Westmoreland,2008). In the workplace,
Ubuntu seems to be principlally concerned with support-
ing group solidarity in team work, and in turn, a collec-
tive achievement orientation by employees to attaining or-
ganisational goals. This led (Browning,2006) to conclude
that managers who behave in a way that contradicts the
expectations of their employees do not realise the positive
inluence that Ubuntu can have on how employees inter-
act with customers. Therefore, to beneit from the premise
of Ubuntu philosophy requires that hospitality managers
model the way of practising its principles for employees in
return for their own experience of Ubuntu from them as
superiors. Although Ubuntu seems is touted as a mean-
ingful and alternative organisational approach, and collec-
tive achievement of organisational goals, empirical inves-
tigation on what Ubuntu means to an employee has so far
been neglected in the hospitality literature.
Although there are numerous validated instruments to
measure servant leadership (Brubaker,2013), employee
job satisfaction (Kiefer et al.,2005), human resources man-
agement practices (Browning,2006;Eisenberger, Stingl-
hamber, Vandenberghe, Sucharski, & Rhoades,2002;Kim,
Leong, & Lee,2005) service quality performance (Babakus,
Yavas, Karatepe, & Avci,2003) in a hospitality context, there
is still no well-developed instrument to measure Ubuntu
experience by employees in a service environment such
as hospitality. One of the relevant measurement scales of
Ubuntu, that has particular relevance to this study, was
developed by Sigger, Polak, and Pennink (2010) and tests
a sample of managers in Tanzanian organisations. Even
though the work of Sigger et al. (2010) in developing
Ubuntu measurement scales should be acknowledged, it
must be mentioned that some measures, particularly group
solidarity, survival, and respect and dignity were not with-
out limitations. The authors of these scales acknowledged
that the low Cronbach’s alpha scores (0.543 to 0.69) on
the above mentioned dimensions were attributed to a) the
number of measurement items (11 for each Ubuntu dimen-
sion), and b) lack of participants’ understanding of the lit-
eral meaning of questions. These authors concluded that
a relevant and useful measurement tool for operationalisa-
tion of Ubuntu practice in the workplace should be devel-
oped.
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115 J. adv. humanit. soc. sci. 2019
Aims and Research Questions
The objective of this paper is to identify what hospitality
frontline managers experience as Ubuntu and subsequently
presents a compact assessment scale for measuring front-
line managers’ experience of Ubuntu culture to a hospitality
organisation in South Africa. It asks the question, what do
managers as employees experience when they encounter
Ubuntu in the workplace, and what dimensions of Ubuntu
can be distinguished? The speciic aims were to:
1) explore the literature on Ubuntu to identify themes and
antecedent conditions that can be used to describe Ubuntu
experience.
2) develop a multi-measurement tool of the Ubuntu concept
and, to enable the collection of empirical data of Ubuntu ex-
perience by employees (frontline-managers) to a hospital-
ity organisation.
Signiicance of the Study
According to Mangaliso (2001), Ubuntu is a conventional
African wisdom that supports those customs and prac-
tices that serve a common good. Ubuntu is founded on
South Africa’s Zulu-Xhosa aphorism, Umuntu-ngumuntu
ngabantu, which means that ‘each individual’s humanity
is expressed in relation with others’ (Battle,1996). Mbigi
(1993) regards Ubuntu as the essence of the South African
corporate renewal and a useful way in which to marry
African, Western and Eastern ideology in order to achieve
world-class status. In support of African and International
writers of Ubuntu, Tutu (2011) gives credence to Ubuntu
by pointing out that it is one unique concept that Africa
can offer to the world. Essentially, Ubuntu is a major part
of African management that introduces a humanistic view
on people as opposed to western approaches which view
people as another tool to meet the objectives of the instru-
mental organisation (Jackson,2004). However, it should be
noted that South Africa is a complex society made up of sev-
eral contexts evidenced by divergent views, ideas, and cul-
tural values and therefore, Ubuntu cannot be popularised
as an attempt to replace existing management practices or
redress previous imbalances. The basic values of Ubuntu,
which could manifest itself in the ways South African peo-
ple think and behave towards each other and everyone else
they encounter, should be promoted. It is against this back-
ground that, the contribution that recognises the value of
Ubuntu to service management knowledge is through its
extension of measurement and well established theories
of individualism-collectivism dimensions (Hofstede,1980;
House, Hanges, Javidan, Dorfman, & Gupta,2004) for direct-
ing high performance teams in the workplace.
Scope and Context of the Study
This research adopted both qualitative and quantitative
methods conducted in a sequential manner. This sequen-
tial methodology combination provided triangulations be-
tween both research methods applied and, types of data
collected, which lent itself to the reliability of the data col-
lected. The study was conducted in three-, four- and ive-
star graded tourist hotels in South Africa. The tourist ho-
tel accommodation sub-sector in South Africa consists of
multi-national and multi-international hotel brands as well
as privately owned hotels. The chosen hotels were identi-
ied through several sources, namely, (a) Tourism Grading
Council of South Africa (TGCSA), (b) CATHSSETA, (c) Trip-
Advisor, and (d) South African Tourism Lilizela awards. The
hotel industry has a series of characteristics that are very
suitable for this study. First, the hotel service industry pro-
vided a unique environmental context in terms of diversity
related to size, star rating, number and type of employees,
scope and scale of functions, and iscal positions (Petzer &
Steyn,2006). The South African owned hotel groups of com-
panies which were chosen for this study were considered
likely to have frontline managers aware of the Ubuntu cul-
ture.
For the sampling method, the researcher of this stdy chose
the convenience sampling method. Previous hospital-
ity research (Brubaker,2013;Strauss et al.,2016) used
convenience samples because of the dificulty in obtain-
ing permission from employees identiied through random
sampling techniques, so convenience sampling allows ev-
ery employee approached, and who agrees to participate,
an opportunity to participate. A convenience sample of
336 frontline-managers in 56 tourist hotels, covering nine
provinces in South Africa was surveyed using a structured
questionnaire.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Collective-Finger’s Theory of Ubuntu
The articulation of togetherness and communism in an
Ubuntu practicing community can be found in Mbigi and
Maree (1995) who developed a conceptual framework
known as the collective ingers theory. As illustrated in Fig-
ure 1, the theory organised the ive key principles/social
values of Ubuntu widely known as survival, compassion,
the spirit of solidarity, respect, and dignity in a conceptual
framework that describes its antecedents.
According to Mbigi and Maree (1995) the principle behind
the ingers theory can best be explained by the African
proverb, “a thumb, although it is strong, cannot kill on its
own. It requires the collective co-operation of the other in-
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2019 T. Molose – The experience of Ubuntu to a . . . . 116
gers” to do this. The African proverb according to Mbigi and
Maree (1995) can be seen in two ways: First, the ingers
should be seen as individual persons who act together in a
collective manner in order to achieve a certain goal. Sec-
ond, the ingers represent key values that are necessary to
form and maintain a collective culture. Mbigi (1997) com-
plemented the collective ingers theory pointing out that
these values have always been part of the African culture.
It can be seen that Mbigi and Maree (1995) theory was
organised into a model of Ubuntu through collective in-
gers. Thus, from the discussion that has preceded the es-
tablished broad collective-values of Ubuntu a theoretical
framework is proposed that integrates a global view as it
stands at this point into a fourfold model. The proposed
framework has received support from empirical research
discussed in the follow-up section. Figure 1therefore, pro-
poses the collective-values framework of Ubuntu to guide
managers in developing leadership characteristics appro-
priate to supervising a collective team in a South African
workplace.
The overall impression of Ubuntu theory presented in Fig-
ure 1suggests that the concept can be seen as one of the
mechanisms capable of promoting synergy and the creation
of a whole that is larger than the sum of the individual
parts, which is seen it as an integral part of Africa culture
(Mangaliso,2001). This could be made possible when peo-
ple show compassion, love, and respect for one another;
Tutu (2011) encouraged that Ubuntu requires common un-
derstanding between the supervisor and team members
that they are able to help and care for each other as mem-
bers of one family or organisation. Jackson (2004) remarks
that Ubuntu’s point of departure should be centred on the
leaders as a cohesive force within the group because ev-
ery aspect of being human should deine their role as one
of a team. There is research propounded by MacDonald,
Kelly, and Christen (2019), which support the view that su-
pervisors must put forth more effort than their subordi-
nates must to build solidarity. Importantly, team solidar-
ity and commitment are said to be a function of strong re-
lationships with others, teamwork, and strong loyalty to
group goals. One theory that emerged recently in the ield
of African management is Ubuntu-relational holder the-
ory (Woermann & Engelbrecht,2019), according to which,
collective decision-making fosters and explains Ubuntu for
management, with reference to the aphorism ‘a person is a
person through others’. Explaining collective decision mak-
ing as an integral part of Ubuntu values may imply that
managers can only be successful managers because of their
teams.
FIGURE 1. The Fourfold Model of Ubuntu’s collective values (Source: Adapted from Molose, Thomas, and Goldman (2019))
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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Phase 1: Exploring the Concept, Content Validity and
Item Generation
The development of the experience of Ubuntu by frontline-
managers entailed both, an explorative and conirmative
phase, consisting of three studies. The objective of phase
one in the development of Ubuntu scale was to deine the
concept and to generate items. This phase consisted of
two qualitative studies, the irst explored the meaning of
Ubuntu from the viewpoints of frontline-managers and aca-
demics involved in Ubuntu-hospitality practising environ-
ments and the second study explored it from the viewpoints
of knowledgeable persons about Ubuntu. Phase two, stage
3 includes the puriication of the scale and the validation of
the factor structure.
Study 1: Qualitative Interviews
Initially, the collection of data entailed interviewing 25 pur-
posively selected (15 hospitality frontline-mangers and 10
hospitality academic lecturers and instructors) as research
participants, and analysing this data in stage one.
Method
• A convenience sample of 15 frontline managers from two
hotel groups, with a total of seven hotels: three three-star,
three four-star and one ive-star graded tourist hotels
• A purposive selection of 10 hospitality academics from
four universities in South Africa.
Initiating permission for interviews and the survey to be
done at the hotel chain required that contact be irst made
with the head ofice of the hotel group. Upon obtaining per-
mission from head ofice, invitation letters were sent via
email to general managers, and group operations directors.
For both tourist hotels and academic hospitality depart-
ments, the invitation letter for participation in the study de-
scribed the goal of the research and requested one-on-one
interviews for qualitative data using an interview sched-
ule. Access to knowledgeable individuals with the following
characteristics was requested:
• Willingness to participate and contribute voluntarily to
the study
• Working in a South African tourist hotel or a university of-
fering hospitality management programmes
• Ability to speak any one of the indigenous African-Nguni
languages and/or knowledgeable about the concept of
Ubuntu
• Employed for more than 12 months in the South African
tourist hotel industry or university offering hospitality
management qualiication, to ensure intimate knowledge of
customer service in the South African hospitality industry.
Purposeful selection of participants with the required expe-
rience allowed intricate insights and diverse views into the
phenomenon and ensured an answer to the research ques-
tion.
Research Design
Prior to commencing the face-to-face interviews, telephone
calls were made to each of the 25 participants and the goals
of the ield research were explained (see Table 1). In this
process, participants were once again given assurance that:
• Participation in the study was completely voluntary
• All interviews would be treated conidentially and the
recordings would not be included in the outcome of the
study
• Total anonymity was guaranteed; no names, reference to
them and their organisation, or anything that could incrim-
inate them would appear in any publications forthcoming
from the study
• Instead of using a name of the participants or organisa-
tion, direct quotations would be either under a pseudonym,
for example, a hotel would be coded as H1, university as U1,
and I1 or I2 would stand for interviewees, depending on the
context.
The interviews took place from August to October 2017
each lasting between 30 and to 90 minutes, on average
45 minutes. Interviews took place mostly at the location
choice of the participants, where they felt comfortable to
express themselves. With the permission of the research
participants, a digital recorder (voice tracker) was used to
record all 25 interviews, and transcribed verbatim into Mi-
crosoft Word™ format (see sections 5.1.1 and 5.2). A note
pad was kept throughout the interviewing process result-
ing in the ield notes and memos used for complementing
the recorded interviews. These ield notes were included
in the transcripts as points of clarity when needed. The or-
der of the topics and probing varied according to the partici-
pant’s responses to the questions, which helped determined
the low of the interview discussions thus, following up on
areas that needed clarity. The researcher commenced with
the interviews by opening with a familiar topic, asking for
work background and the experience of the participant with
the organisation/institution. This strategy helped to allevi-
ate any anxiety that the participants might have felt prior to
introducing the more sensitive topics. The interview then
progressed using the interview guide as a loose framework
(Brod, Tesler, & Christensen,2009).
Interviews took place mostly during normal working hours
(08:00 to 17:00), in quiet and convenient locations in par-
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ticipants working environment where they felt comfortable
to express themselves. Furthermore, all interviews were
conducted simultaneously. This process helped assess how
the research participants differed in their understanding
of Ubuntu, the inluence on management of frontline em-
ployees, and service quality training. Like frontline man-
agers, hospitality academics are involved in the training
and researching of frontline employees’ developmental at-
tributes and the required attitudes in service delivery sit-
uations. Therefore, soliciting insights from hospitality aca-
demics was as important as obtaining insights from front-
line managers on this topic.
Based on the above, each interview was treated as unique
as possible giving each participant the opportunity to talk
freely about his or her experience and encouraging them
to provide examples of incidents and events that might be
of importance to the discussion. If the research partici-
pant said he/she was unhappy with how they were treated
by managers or the organisation/institution, then the re-
searcher would probe asking if participants could remem-
ber a recent incident with regard to that speciic treatment
that made him/her unhappy. Overall, lexibility was consid-
ered the most important factor as interaction with partici-
pants was only to guide the discussion topics thereby allow-
ing them to do most of the talking.
During the interviewing discussion, questions like ‘how
would you expect your manager to see him/herself as part
of a team’, and ‘how would a stranger be shown Ubuntu in
their workplace’ were explored. In responding, participants
were requested to tell a story or relate responses to a pre-
vious situation that represented their responses to these
questions. In this sense, the story telling was incorporated
to explore the practical meaning and elements that make
Ubuntu. Storytelling involves events and characters, what
the characters say and do, and signiies the way the story
is told as the mode established by Khoza (1994). Story-
telling in this research coincided with the recommendations
in the literature suggesting that the generation of African
knowledge, particularly, that of culture should be devel-
oped through African ways (Nussbaum,2003;Newenham-
Kahindi,2009). Ultimately, some stories of Ubuntu recon-
necting with previous research emerged during the data
analysis showing new patterns and trends of Ubuntu that
may help practitioners to rethink management of organi-
sations operating in Southern Africa where the majority of
people represent Nguni speaking ethnic groups.
Data Analysis
The irst step in the analysis process was loading Atlas/ti
(statistical software), version 8 (Archer, Herman, van Vu-
uren, & Hugo,2017). After listening to the voice recorded
interviews, relecting on their content, each individual in-
terview was transcribed into a Microsoft Word™ document
and imported into Atlas/ti (Swanson & Holton,2005). The
second task was reading and re-reading the transcripts,
jotting down impressions of what the transcripts inferred
against the background of literature reviewed (Basit,2003;
Swanson & Holton,2005). The deeper and richer the un-
derstanding of the interview transcripts became, the more
ideas and patterns (based on what was seen in the data at
thematic level) emerged from the data.
As the process unfolded, time away from the data was spent
writing and relecting on the list of categories that kept
emerging in an attempt to understand the intricacies of the
data (Swanson & Holton,2005). Each chunk of data was
labelled with a descriptive code and compared with each
new chunk so that similar chunks of data could be labelled
with same code. Once all data was coded, the codes were
then grouped by similarity, thereby helping to identify the
themes. The outcome was the development of a long list of
preliminary codes in a Microsoft Excel™ spreadsheet as the
beginning of the process of developing themes through tem-
plate analysis. The researcher was aware that inluencing
the data analysis process in any way should be avoided. Any
speculations were kept to a minimum (Swanson & Holton,
2005). To minimise bias, and improve inter-rater reliability,
two procedures were performed. The irst included making
the results available to the research participant and then
asking them to provide input on whether the data accu-
rately relected their experiences. Secondly, the researcher
invited two professional colleagues, who were familiar with
the goals of this research and had worked in hospitality
environments, to act as peers. These colleagues indepen-
dently reviewed the content analysis and interview tran-
scripts to see if they agreed with the categories of themes
and concepts derived. These precedures resulted in minor
changes to the original coding scheme.
The views, experiences, and patterns of Ubuntu domains,
as they emerged from the qualitative statements of the re-
search participants, were analysed by following the ap-
proaches recommended by Corbin and Strauss (1990):
• Step 1–Opening coding: This process entailed careful in-
spection of the data with the goal of breaking it into use-
ful meaningful units (Corbin & Strauss,1990;Onwuegbuzie,
Dickinson, Leech, & Zoran,2009). In this process, concep-
tual labels were developed from the units of data represent-
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119 J. adv. humanit. soc. sci. 2019
ing events, actions, interactions, and emotions, which were
then compared for similarities and differences (Brod et al.,
2009;Corbin & Strauss,1990). In turn, these labels were
grouped together into categories and sub-categories. Keep-
ing this in mind, each of the labelled codes was re-evaluated
in order to lesh out the dimensions and properties of the
category. This suggested that each of these categories had a
property of type, which was further broken down into sub-
types (Corbin & Strauss,1990). In this instance, some ac-
tions or comments from the participants were noted and la-
belled, for example: “Communism” under Ubuntu phenom-
ena and then labelled the subtype as “sharing with others
or my child is your child”. Once the above categories and
their properties were identiied, the next observation en-
tailed looking closely at instances of each and taking note
of different kinds and what types and so forth.
• Step 2–Axial coding: The categories developed in step
one were connected to their sub-categories and assumed
to be tested against the data (Brod et al.,2009;Corbin &
Strauss,1990). These connections between the categories
were made by ensuring that each represented the concepts
under study. Further development of categories took place
by looking for indications of them in the data. During the
analysis, context in terms of which emerging category is car-
ried out was scrutinised to determine the conditions that
gave rise to the category through which it occurs.
• Step 3–Selective coding: In selective coding, all categories
are uniied around a core category, which represents the
central phenomenon of the study (Corbin & Strauss,1990).
The step involved conceptualising the indings in a few sen-
tences, explaining the essence of the events or interactions,
and explaining the variation between and among the cat-
egories. In this sense, one or more themes that express
the content of each of the groups of categories can be de-
veloped as the essence of what is investigated (Brod et al.,
2009;Corbin & Strauss,1990;Onwuegbuzie et al.,2009).
Upon grouping all the categories that emerged during open
and axial coding, studying all 25 transcripts and summaries
repeatedly, and links were found between 47 categories.
These were consolidated to result in 22 categories. At this
point, a network relationship was produced to make sense
of the links between the categories (Basit,2003). Once
again, the transcripts were perused before requesting two
independent reviewers for comments and input into the
data networks. Illuminative quotations from the transcripts
were highlighted and studied against the 22 identiied cat-
egories. Arising from this, the categories were found to be
connected with one another and were grouped according to
similarities and differences, which captured both negative
and positive elements that were condensed culminating in
two core themes:
(1) Societal changes–Letting go of old-ways: Research par-
ticipants tended to relect on distinctive dimensions dur-
ing the interviews. They relected on the relationship be-
tween managers and subordinates, because they need each
other, the success of managers depends on people working
for them, and not getting views of employees on how to im-
prove work. Furthermore, separation as a move from unity,
where managers tend to create space and distance them-
selves from teams, to individualism, allowing the team to
attend to cultural activities and making arrangements with-
out deducting from their salary. Some participants indi-
cated that Ubuntu is sometimes perceived as a culture asso-
ciated with African people. These relections indicated that
different people associate views on organisational practices
based on their experiences, where they are in their career in
the organisation, and to what views they are accustomed.
Belongingness – I am because you are: The research partic-
ipants were very unapologetic about managers who were
distancing themselves from junior managers and staff alike.
They tended to emphasise their expectation that top man-
agement have to be team players, must be close to staff;
thus, being there physically and emotionally. These re-
lections were consistent with slogans identiied in the lit-
erature like Umuntu ngumu-ntu ngabantu. Although this
‘united front’ view does not necessarily mean that each re-
search participant promoted the supremacy of Ubuntu, they
knew full well that creating and maintaining unity and so-
cial relationships is a process that is complex (due to differ-
ent cultural backgrounds), multi-faceted, and taxing. There-
fore, for the indings to be meaningful in the context of the
South African organisation, an understanding of these per-
spectives is crucial, as this contextualises perceptions of and
feelings towards their experiences of Ubuntu in practice.
The overall picture presented by this qualitative research
portrayed Ubuntu as a Southern African heritage that
promised belongingness, togetherness, and communocracy.
Thus Ubuntu is also seen as an ethnic culture with a stigma
that suggests practising an ancient wisdom in a modern so-
ciety may not be the same, as put by (Esterberg,2002).
FINDINGS
Evidence from the interviews showed that participants
tended to relect on distinctive elements representing
Ubuntu. For instance, the two categories highlighted
above represents the accounts of participant’s relection
on manager-subordinate relationship (expressing that both
need each other), and emphasise that the success of a man-
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2019 T. Molose – The experience of Ubuntu to a . . . . 120
ager depends on people working for him/her. Others re-
lected on negative issues such as managers not obtaining
the views of employees on how to improve work or sep-
aration of unity-whereby managers tend to create a space
or gap between them and the employees, thus, distancing
themselves from work teams (individualism). Some par-
ticipants indicated that Ubuntu is sometimes perceived as
culture associated with African people and letting go of old
ways of thinking. These relections indicated that different
people associate views on organisational practices based on
one’s experiences and from what they are accustomed to.
Furthermore, in terms of belongingness, the participants
were very unapologetic about managers who were distanc-
ing themselves from junior managers and staff alike. They
emphasize their expectation that top management have to
be team players, must be close to staff, thus, being there
physically and emotionally. These relections were consis-
tent with slogans identiied in the literature like ‘Umuntu
ngumu-ntu ngabantu’. Although this “belongingness” view
does not necessarily mean that each participant was pro-
moting the supremacy of Ubuntu, each of them was con-
sciously aware that creating and maintaining unity and so-
cial relationships is a process that is complex and could be
impeded by different cultural backgrounds. In this sense,
understanding of these perspectives is crucial, as this con-
textualises perceptions and feelings of people on the ground
towards their experiences of Ubuntu in the organisation.
From these indings, supplemented by extant literature, the
researcher developed what he believed would be multidi-
mensional scale of Ubuntu for examination of Ubuntu man-
agement application in South African organisations.
Delphi Study
A Delphi study technique can be viewed as a “method for
consensus-building” among a group of experts or knowl-
edgeable participants (Van Dun, Hicks, & Wilderom,2017).
Delphi techniques have been used because of its ability to
assist researchers to arrive at effective decisions in situa-
tions that present contradictory or insuficient information
in scale development (Hasson, Keeney, & McKenna,2000).
Therefore, the Delphi survey method was implemented
in this study for the following reasons, a) the scarcity of
Ubuntu measurement scales focusing on style of manage-
ment in hospitality organisations speciically in the litera-
ture, b) to test the trustworthiness of existing and new de-
veloped Ubuntu item measures.
Method Participants
Eight knowledgeable participants including academic
scholars, writers on Ubuntu, and tourist hotel frontline
managers were invited. Purposefully selecting the par-
ticipants to be involved in the Delphi study was based on
their experience and theoretical knowledge of Ubuntu. The
decision for a sample size of eight participants in the Del-
phi study was a practical consideration, taking into account
factors such as time available, number of rounds, and ho-
mogeneity of the sample. Five participants were luent
in Southern Africa Nguni languages (for example, Zulu,
Xhosa, Ndebele) through their upbringing and associated
culture. This was important in understanding the concept
of Ubuntu, as Ubuntu forms part of the Nguni culture. The
remaining three participants had a good theoretical knowl-
edge of Ubuntu. Together, the Delphi study participants
included six males and two females. Three of them were
Xhosa speaking, two Ndebele speaking, one Zulu speaking,
and two English speaking, thereby mitigating the issue of
bias, and eliciting a wider knowledge base.
Research Design
A Delphi method was used: An interactive method in which
experts (knowledgeable people) “discuss” a common prob-
lem (Jones & Hunter,1995). Through a structured itera-
tive process the participants were requested to complete
an online survey-over three rounds which entailed Ubuntu
measurement items generated from the literature and ex-
ploratory interviews. The process included both, open-
ended, allowing participants to provide input, and closed-
ended questions on the most important Ubuntu values and
behaviours. Speciically, the closed-ended survey questions
listed the key values/constructs of Ubuntu and their an-
tecedents generated from the literature and exploratory in-
terviews conducted in phase one.
Procedure
Part of round one was to determine opinions by encour-
aging the participants to donate as many opinions as pos-
sible to maximise the chance of covering the most impor-
tant opinions and issues regarding Ubuntu’s practical be-
haviours. During this round, the questionnaire included
closed-ended questions including 16 item measures, repre-
senting the four Ubuntu dimesnions. Participants were also
requested to judge items in terms of quality and length, and
their ability to capture the constructs of Ubuntu in practice.
The intent was to assess the extent of agreement (consensus
measurement) among the participants, and to resolve dis-
agreement (consensus development) in subsequent rounds
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121 J. adv. humanit. soc. sci. 2019
(Jones & Hunter,1995). In each round, participants were
asked to spend 15 minutes of their time completing the
questionnaire, and return it to the researcher within three
days. In the second round participants were requested to
score agreements (keep their initial score) with each state-
ment or re-rate the scores based on the new additional 10
items in the questionnaire (1 = total disagreement and 5 =
total agreement). In the third round, the participants de-
liberated on a number of items, quality and length to reach
consensus. Overall, participants provided input and opin-
ions on the inal pool of 26 Ubuntu item measures which
were used in the inal administration of the survey instru-
ment that in stage three.
The steps followed for the Ubuntu scale development con-
formed to literature recommendations (Churchill Jr,1979;
Hinkin,1995). Some of these items were modiied versions
of existing compassion dimensions in literature with mea-
surement scales already used in other studies (Sigger et al.,
2010;Strauss et al.,2016). As a result, through the com-
bination of reviewing the literature and exploratory inter-
view indings, 26 items measuring Ubuntu were identiied
for inal inclusion in stage three of the survey. In the i-
nal round, the degree of consensus among the participants
was assessed as very similar, after which the 10 new items
were included. Thus, the process stopped and the results
were fed back to the participants, as it was felt the degree
of acceptable consensus building had been obtained (Jones
& Hunter,1995). Upon revising and rewording all items,
an attempt to select both positively and negatively worded
items was made. Finally, 26 measurement items represent-
ing each Ubuntu construct was set at four each for survival
and respect and dignity, and six each for compassion, group
solidarity, and collectivism respectively.
Analysis
The scores of the responses provided in all three rounds
were captured on Microsoft ExcelTM and averages of these
scores were used to determine whether the participants
agreed or disagreed with each other. Responses were sum-
marised between rounds and fed back to the participants
through a process of controlled feedback, which was re-
peated until consensus was reached. In this sense, the re-
searcher kept informing the participants of the other partic-
ipant’s perspectives, and provided the opportunity for the
participants to clarify or change their views, without inlu-
encing them. The aggregation of participant’s scores (aver-
ages), after evaluating Ubuntu measurement items, enabled
the quantitative analysis and interpretation of the Delphi
data, thereby knowing when to stop collecting views from
participants.
RESULTS
In summarising the three iterative rounds, the response
rate, which inluenced the strength of support for the newly
generated Ubuntu scale, conformed to the recommenda-
tions in the literature (Hasson et al.,2000;Jones & Hunter,
1995). Of those ive Ubuntu elements, the highest ranked
mean scores were: respect and dignity (3.66), group soli-
darity (3.69), and survival (3.72) for round 1. Subsequently,
Delphi round two was administered, and the participants
scored the measurement items for each Ubuntu element
achieving mean scores ranging from 4.75 to 5.5. During
this process, 10 new measurement items, which the partic-
ipants felt were important representations of Ubuntu, were
included in round three. As a result, consensus agreement
with these new measures was assessed. In round three,
the mean score of 4.1 for collectivism, ranked the highest.
The other measures: compassion, survival, group solidar-
ity, and respect and dignity ranged from 3.4 to 3.7. In accor-
dance with recommendations in the literature (Hasson et
al.,2000) it can be said that the indicator of group consensus
which is between 51 per cent to 80 per cent was achieved
in this study.
Phase 2: Quantitative Study and Validation
This phase builds on these preceding studies by empirical
testing of the research tool. It sought to cross-validate and
reine the elements of the Ubuntu concept measures de-
veloped in stages one and two, and then cross-validate the
questionnaire (see Appendix 1).
Sample and Data Collection
The survey was distributed to frontline managers as em-
ployees from 56 tourist hotels located across the nine
provinces of South Africa. The questionnaire was admin-
istered over a 10-week period in 2018 (end of May to be-
ginning of July). To enhance the response rate, support
for frontline managers completing the survey was obtained
from their respective general managers at each of the 56
tourist hotels. The endorsement of this research by these
general managers helped enhance the interest and the im-
portance of the research among the participants.
A total of 336 questionnaires were distributed and 212
were returned resulting in a response rate of 63 per cent.
Hair et al. (2006) recommended a minimum sample size of
50 or larger for studies utilising Exploratory Factor Analy-
sis (EFA) and a minimum of 200, or ratio of 10:1 for Conir-
matory Factor Analysis (CFA). Therefore, this study’s sam-
ple size was large enough to perform the statistical analyses
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2019 T. Molose – The experience of Ubuntu to a . . . . 122
employed.
Data Analysis
The data were analysed in several ways. A statistical Pack-
age for Social Sciences (SPSS, Version 25) was used for
statistical analysis (IBM Corporation,2013). Descriptive
statistics including mean, standard deviation, and variance
were computed for each of the 26 measures of Ubuntu scale
items used in the study.The main data analysis techniques
used were factor analysis and Structural Equation Mod-
elling (SEM), as these were the most appropriate data analy-
sis techniques for this type of research. Factor analysis was
also used for testing.
Validity and Reliability
In terms of assessing validity, most of the constructs were
developed from well-established literature and therefore,
the adapted versions of various scales could be considered
to possess content validity. Additionally, EFA was used with
SEM to assess convergent and discriminate validity of the
measures. As a result, the measurement models it the data
satisfactorily. Again, most of the factors loaded signiicantly
(p= 0.001), indicating uni-dimensionality of the measures.
Hair et al. (2006) procedures were followed to estimate the
relative amount of convergent validity of the multiple item
construct. The literature recommends 0.30 or 0.40 as the
criteria for item retention Hair et al. (2006). Items were re-
tained if they did not cross-load on to other factors, particu-
larly where the factor was deemed important to the content
of the construct domain and, only factors with an eigenvalue
greater than one were retained so that a good or very good
rotated structure is relected. Convergent validity on the
other hand is established if the average variance explained
for each item accounts for 0.50 or more of the total variance
(Hair et al.,2006). The average variance extracted for the
Ubuntu dimensions was 0.54.
Reliability is deined by (Hair et al.,2006) as an assessment
of “the degree to which the observed variable measures the
true value and is error free”, thus, the opposite of measure-
ment error. The most commonly used measure of reliability,
which applies to the consistency among the variables in a
summated scale, is internal consistency.The internal consis-
tencies of the 17 summated items used in this research’s in-
strument had satisfactory levels (0.73 to 0.88). To this end,
the satisfactory levels achieved in this study showed that
the developed instrument used was reliable, given that it is
above the expected minimum recommended level of 0.70
(Churchill Jr,1979;Hair et al.,2006). Taking these rigorous
tests into account, which also included a Delphi survey tech-
nique, the results provided an indication that the measures
in this study possessed adequate reliability and validity.
Demographic Proile of Respondents
Table 1indicates the proile of the participants. Two
hundred and twelve (212) usable questionnaires were re-
turned, yielding a 63% response rate. Respondents were 62
per cent female and on average 36 years old. The majority
of the 212 frontline managers who participated had either a
post-matric (hospitality certiication) or a national diploma
(60.7%) and over 21 per cent had completed a grade 12 or
national senior certiicate. Just over ifty per cent (50.7) of
the total sample were black South African frontline man-
agers, followed by 29.2 per cent white.
TABLE 1. Demographic characteristics of the respondents (N= 212)
Characteristics Frequencies Percentage of Respondents
Gender: Female 130 61.6
Male 81 38.4
Total 211 100
Education: Grade 11 or lower 20 9.5
Grade 12 (Matric) 45 21.3
Post-Matric Diploma or certiicate 128 60.7
Baccalaureate degree 14 6.6
Post-graduate degree 4 1.9
Total 211 100
Marital status: Single 107 50.7
Married with no children 14 6.6
Married with children 67 31.8
Divorced 9 4.3
Widow/Widower 4 1.9
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123 J. adv. humanit. soc. sci. 2019
TABLE 1. Continue...
Characteristics Frequencies Percentage of Respondents
Living together/Cohabitant 10 4.7
Total 211 100
Job proile: Frontline-supervisor (or coordinator) 78 36.8
Frontline-Assistant manager 46 21.7
Frontline-manager 88 41.5
Total 212 100
Length of previous experience in the hotel industry:
Less than a year (12 months) 4 1.9
1-2 years 18 8.5
2-5 years 35 16.6
5 -10 years 56 26.5
10-15 years 40 19
15-20 years 30 14.2
More than 20 years 28 13.3
Total 211 100
Ubuntu Measures
The Ubuntu concept was measured using a 26-item ques-
tionnaire asking the participant to respond on a ive-point
response scale (1 = total disagreement and 5 = total agree-
ment). Of the 26 measures, 16 were the modiied items
adapted from Brubaker (2013), Sigger et al. (2010), and
Strauss et al. (2016) 10 were compiled especially for this
study. Ubuntu values were measured in this study using
items, for example, “my manager is usually present (emo-
tionally) to share my pain during dificult times”, “I feel that
my manager treats me with utmost respect and dignity”, “I
do helpful things that will beneit me and the colleagues I
know”, and “the well-being of my co-workers is important
to me”. In a study of Ubuntu management style in Tanza-
nia (Sigger et al.,2010), and servant leadership in Rwanda
(Brubaker,2013), reliability coeficients of 0.82 and 0.87 re-
spectively were reported. In this study, the alpha coeficient
of the whole Ubuntu scale was 0.93.
Results
Two scales were developed from the compassion scale
(Strauss et al.,2016) and two items for the survival scale
dimension (Sigger et al.,2010). Three scales (solidarity,
respect and dignity, and collectivism), represented by 10
items, were developed through the process of designing the
questionnaire from the qualitative study indings, and ver-
iied by the Delphi consensus feedback. To some extent,
the respondents rated most of the dimensions of Ubuntu
favourably. The Ubuntu scale indicated that the items, ‘I see
myself as part of a diverse work team’, ‘the well-being for
my co-workers’ and ‘my manager expects me to respect his
decision’, were rated highest (4.16, 4.25 and 4.37 respec-
tively). For the irst statement, this could indicate that front-
line managers did not only work in direct contact with cus-
tomers but also with each other, and therefore suggested
that co-operation and being part of a team was as impor-
tant as serving the customer.
The fact that respondents rated managers’ expectations for
respecting their decision the highest (4.25), could signal
that either they showed genuine respect, or it could be an in-
dication that managers did as they expected others to do to
them. For example, when asked about whether the manager
treated individual staff members as if they were a member
of a family, the respondents rated this element favourably,
with the mean score being 3.87. This statement relected
that respondents tended to view their managers as a part
of the team. In this sense, the rating of this Ubuntu scale
seemed more balanced.
The respondents rated more favourably statements such as
‘my manager greets me whenever he/she sees me’, ‘shares
his/her burden during hard times’ (3.32, 3.34). Other state-
ments such as ‘my manager is usually available (physically)
to suffer with me during dificult time’ (3.39), ‘sharing my
dificulty with colleagues makes me strong’, with a mean
score of 3.49, highlighted the importance of sharing with
others. Other statements which rated highly included con-
tribution to work goals, (4.03), doing helpful things and
sticking together as family (4.10).
More broadly, frontline managers of South African tourist
hotel accommodation tended to believe that they could
handle and solve work problems collectively by sacriicing
and backing each other up, which then helped them solve
customer-service related problems, as relected by mean
scores of between 3.86 and 3.88. This was also supported
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2019 T. Molose – The experience of Ubuntu to a . . . . 124
by favourable mean scores of 3.92 for willingness to share
with others, and brotherly care (3.89). Importantly, the fact
that respondents’ mean scores of 3.67 to 3.89 relected that
managers were being authentic about their emotional sup-
port and interactions with staff, provided good news for
South African hospitality managers. This indicated some
form of existing Ubuntu style of management, which is re-
lated to Hofstede (1983)cultural relativity of the organ-
isation or even House et al. (2004) collective culturally-
endorsed leadership.
Result of EFA
EFA results for the Ubuntu measured items numbered 26
representing ive factors. Only four factors as debated in
the literature, were extracted. These factors included com-
passion, collectivism, survival, and respect and dignity. One
of the ive factors was excluded due to cross loading be-
tween other factors (Compassion, Respect and Dignity, and
Collectivism). This result is interesting considering that
group solidarity was replaced by collectivism according to
the four-factor model described earlier in Figure 1. With
the remaining four factors, two items were singled out for
respect and dignity, and one item for the survival dimen-
sion. These items were removed because they had low-
shared variance. The four retained dimensions of Ubuntu
values accounted for 54.45 per cent total common variance
explained. The same could be said for internal reliabili-
ties where .88 represented compassion, .86 collectivism, .73
survival, and .76 respect and dignity. This suggested that all
four dimensions exceeded the minimum recommended ac-
ceptable level of .70.
DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This research is one of the rare initiative studies that utilised
three different methods in a triangulation approach in or-
der to explore the factorial validity of a new version of an
Ubuntu style of management instrument. The author of this
paper tied what has, to date, been conceptualised as ive
separate streams of Ubuntu philosophy research. The use
of varied elements of Ubuntu by various studies has led to
considerable confusion in the literature concerning African
management and Ubuntu at the most general level of soci-
ety. Deining Ubuntu in a manner that allows for its mea-
surement has to date been limited to to a focus on four prin-
ciples without taking into account the collectivist dimen-
sion as an integral part of Ubuntu. Theoretically, this pa-
per make, albeit, a small contribution by providing a con-
solidation of the antecedents of Ubuntu elements and by in-
corporating collectivism dimension as part African culture
and the Ubuntu notion which most research in cross-culture
studies tended to overlook. Based on these antecedents of
each Ubuntu element, item measures are developed. The
proposed measurement scale for the Ubuntu concept has
the potential to be generalised to other forms of business or-
ganisations which might be applicable and relevant to other
African multicultural populations.
The practical contribution that this study makes, is that
managers can use Ubuntu practical ideas drawn from both,
the literature and the current empirical research indings to
enhance team collectiveness, care towards others and sup-
port for organisational goals, even during dificult times.
Building from these practical ideas and lessons, managers
of tourism and hospitality organisations could facilitate bet-
ter management of the experiences of frontline employees
and foster the development of positive attitudes and im-
proved team performance outcomes such as service qual-
ity. With regard to Ubuntu compassion, McGregor (1960)
motivational theory seems to be aligned with this element
in that it suggests managers’ understanding of employees’
feelings and the need for management styles that resonate
with employee struggles. In explaining McGregor (1960)
theory Y, understanding managers are viewed as those that
take a more positive view on people.
Following the leads of House et al. (2004), it is argued
that organisational productivity requirements by managers
such as assuring service quality excellence should consider
the implications of Ubuntu in the context of South African
service business and contribution to the generation of ac-
cepted African cultural dimensional theories of organisa-
tional decision-making (consensus) and collectivism could
be extended to other parts of the sub-Sahara Africa re-
gion. Lessons to be learned by hospitality managers result-
ing from exploring the measured concepts of Ubuntu and
organisational performance, highlighted that opportunities
exist in the hospitality sector to begin looking at key ele-
ments of the Ubuntu concept as it can complement exist-
ing management styles. Empirical research further showed
that top management should be in touch with the feelings
and perceptions of frontline managers, and must ensure
that the policies that are put in place lead to the desired
work outcomes.
LIMITATIONS
This study is not without limitations. The author acknowl-
edges that while this study makes contribution to the the-
ory and practices that it may not be as easy as it sounds to
implements Ubuntu in an organisation. One reason for this
is based on the acknowledgement of the participants that
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125 J. adv. humanit. soc. sci. 2019
Ubuntu may be perceived as a culture that support certain
group of people. Some researchers noted that it may be dif-
icult to implement an old ancient wisdom in a modern so-
ciety. These kinds of statements were seen by other par-
ticipants as developing stigma amongst those that want to
practice Ubuntu in the workplace. These need to be taken
into account whenever an attempt is made to apply Ubuntu
in an organisation as not all people may embrace Ubuntu
notion. After all, some managers of businesses may not be
interested in collective-decision making and group consen-
sus as it may delay decision making process.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
Most research which were supported by the current ind-
ings highlight Ubuntu as a universal concept that does not
discriminate against race, age, gender and strangers and is
considered by Mangaliso (2001) as one of the African wis-
dom that promote the common good. However, it is rec-
ommended that future research should consider conduct-
ing empirical research that would establish what people of
different cultures believe Ubuntu is and what could be the
impediments for applying Ubuntu management for people
who have not grown up in an Ubuntu culture/environment
or with no knowledge of Ubuntu. Such studies would enable
a better understanding of Ubuntu application and identify
ways that help isolate areas that impede the development
of Ubuntu as an additional source of insight that could com-
plement existing cultural dimensions theories. It is also rec-
ommended that a preliminary test of hypotheses concern-
ing the relationship between management style and team
performance based on the antecedents of Ubuntu elements
developed in this study is conducted. Further research
could make use of the emergent questionnaire items using
a ive-point Likert scale to test quantitatively, the reliability-
internal consistency and internal and external validity of
the measures.
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2019 T. Molose – The experience of Ubuntu to a . . . . 128
APPENDIX 1
TABLE 2. Reliability Items of the Ubuntu experience scale
Ubuntu Style of Management variables (N= 211) Mean Std. Dev NCronbach Alpha if Item
Deleted
S1.1 My manager is usually present (emotionally) to share my pain
during dificult times.
3.67 1.176 211 .925
S1.2 My manager is usually available (physically) to suffer with me
during dificult times.
3.39 1.200 211 .925
S1.3 My manager encourages me to remain polite even when I dis-
agree with what the guest says.
4.19 0.794 211 .927
S1.4 My manager responds sellessly to free me from sufferingwhen
I am under pressure (e.g., manager involvement during busy group
guest check-in).
3.89 1.058 211 .925
S1.5 I feel happy when I see my manager notices that I havepersonal
problems that may potentially affect my work performance.
3.78 0.962 211 .925
S1.6 I feel a genuine authenticity/realness/honesty about my man-
ager and this is demonstrated in his/her empathetic interactions
with me and guests alike.
3.86 1.009 211 .924
S1.7 I believe each employee should be willing to share (the little)
they have with others as a way of brotherly care.
3.92 0.999 211 .926
S1.8 It is common practice for employees to sacriice their time for
the good of other team members.
3.86 0.969 211 .926
S1.9 I feel that sharing my dificulties (grief) with other colleagues
makes me strong.
3.49 1.152 211 .928
S1.10 My manager share his/her burden during hard times (e.g.,
budget cuts, salary pay cuts, restructuring or change of top man-
agement) as part of a team.
3.34 1.209 211 .929
S1.11 I feel that my manager treats me with utmost respect and dig-
nity.
4.11 1.015 211 .925
S1.12 My manager greets me whenever he/she sees me. 4.32 0.873 211 .926
S1.13 My manager expects me to respect his/her decisions. 4.37 0.753 211 .926
S1.14 My manager treats each staff member as if he/she was a mem-
ber of a family.
3.87 1.155 211 .923
S1.15 I have a genuine backing (support) of my co-workers, such
that they are willing to help me when I need it.
3.89 0.944 211 .925
S1.16 I actively contribute to work goals that beneit a wider group
particularly, where they are worse-off than me.
4.03 0.789 211 .925
S1.17 I generally do trust my co-workers in matters of landing or
extending a helping hand.
3.88 0.875 211 .925
S1.18 I have to be alert or else someone is likely to take advantage
of me.
3.51 1.114 211 .932
S1.19 I do helpful things that will beneit me and the colleagues I
know.
4.10 0.899 211 .928
S1.20 When something unfortunate happens to me (e.g., loss of fam-
ily member), my co-workers get together to help me out.
3.91 1.001 211 .925
S1.21 I see myself as part of a diverse work team rather than as in-
dividual from a different cultural background or nationality.
4.16 0.880 211 .925
S1.22 I feel that all employees should stick together as a family no
matter what sacriices are required.
4.10 0.892 211 .926
S1.23 I feel it is my duty to take care of my co-workers, even if I have
to sacriice what I want.
3.93 0.926 211 .925
S1.24 Being a valuable team player is very important to me than my
personal identity.
4.10 0.853 211 .927
S1.25 The wellbeing of my co-workers is important to me. 4.25 0.703 211 .926
S1.26 It is important to me that I respect the decisions (e.g., how to
serve the customer) made by my co-workers.
4.16 0.776 211 .926
Reliability Statistics, Cronbach Alpha = .931, Nof Items = 26 Valid cases = 211 (99.5%), Excluded cases = 1(0.5%), Total = 212
Scale: 1 (strongly disagree); 2 (disagree); 3 (Neutral); 4 (agree); 5 (Strongly agree)
ISSN: 2414-3111
DOI: 10.20474/jahss-5.3.2
