Paper Title
Workers Perceptions’ Regarding Introduction Of Technology At Chiadzwa Diamond Mines In Zimbabwe
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of workers regarding the introduction of
technology at Chiadzwa Diamond Mines. The study was quantitative in nature and a descriptive research design
was used. A selected sample size of 60 workers (30 skilled and 30 unskilled) was drawn out from Chiadzwa
Diamond. Simple random sampling was used in this study and the data collection instrument was a
questionnaire. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19.0 was used to carry out data
analysis. The Mann Whitney U test was used to test for the significance of differences in the perceptions of
skilled and unskilled workers. No statistically significant differences were detected between skilled and
unskilled workers in most of their perceptions regarding the introduction of technology. However, only 4 out of
78 perceptions had statistically significant differences. The study found that introduction of technology leads to
dehumanisation effects on workers such as alienation, specialisation, deskilling, redundancy, monotony and
poor job satisfaction. However, to a lesser extent it led to an increase of production, profits and safety at the
workplace. Nevertheless, these positive effects such as increase in profits benefits management more than the
workers. Therefore, juxtaposing the negatives and positives of technology, the study concluded that workers
bear the brunt whilst management gets the best out of technology. As a result, there is a dire need to strike a
balance between positives and negatives. This enables a win-win situation to prevail whereby workers realise a
quality work life whilst management surpass its goals. This study recommends the use of Human Resource
Models to enable the positive inculcation of introduction of technology by workers since workers are a unique
and precious resource that deserves a fulfilling work life across all different levels in organisations.
Index Terms: Perceptions, Resistance, Support, Technology.