Worker's perception regarding the introduction of technology at Chiadzwa diamonds 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 Mines three companies namely; Mbada Diamond , Anjin and Diamond Mining Company. Simple random sampling was used in this study and the data collection instrument was a questionnaire. Participants were required to complete the questionnaire using Likert-type scale responses (ranging from 1: strongly disagree, 2: disagree, 3 not sure 4: agree: 5 strongly disagree). The Statistica! Package for Social Sciences ( P ) version 19.0 was used to carry out data analysis. The Mann Whitney U test was used to test for th significance of differences in the perceptions of skilled and unskilled workers. No statitically 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 perception 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 les er 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 resultt, 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 surpasses its goals. This study recommends the use of Human Resource Models to enable the po itive 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.