Exploring the psychological elements of decent work

Abstract

This thesis, titled Exploring the Psychological Elements of Decent Work, examined how blue-collar workers, particularly platform-based delivery riders in South Africa, experienced work. The study was motivated by a call within the field of vocational psychology to extend its relevance to a broader range of workers by paying greater attention to contextual and structural influences on work. The concept of decent work was introduced by the International Labour Organization in 1999 as a global initiative to promote fair, secure, and meaningful employment. This thesis aimed to contribute a more inclusive and contextually grounded understanding of decent work by exploring how semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers subjectively experienced decent and precarious work. Precarious work was included alongside decent work to reflect the reality that their work conditions often co-exist within the same work setting, particularly in informal and non-standard employment. Many of these workers operate in contexts marked by high unemployment, economic insecurity, and informal labour market conditions, where access to stable, well-regulated employment is limited and work is often pursued out of necessity rather than choice. The thesis comprised three interrelated articles. Article 1 presents a scoping review of 35 empirical studies that examined decent or precarious work among semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers. The review found that elements of decent and precarious work often co-occurred and were shaped by broader contextual and structural conditions. It focused specifically on studies that examined the individual and subjective psychological experiences of workers, including how they constructed vii meaning, navigated constraints and experienced dignity, volition and purpose in their lives. Articles 2 and 3 were grounded in the Psychology of Working Theory and the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), and the data for analysis were obtained from interviews conducted with 10 motorbike delivery riders in Johannesburg, South Africa. Article 2 explored how riders experienced work and how their experiences related to the five dimensions of decent work outlined in the Decent Work Scale (DWS). From the interviews with the riders, in which I focused on their perspectives, I identified three interrelated themes as key elements of decent work, namely, safety and healthcare, income security, and work–life balance. Subsequently, I developed a revised framework of decent work which captured the experiences of the sample more accurately than did the five dimensions of the DWS, particularly highlighting dimensions that were contextually salient to platform-based motorbike delivery work. Notably, not all elements were equally valued—for this sample, income security emerged as the most central and defining feature of decent work. Article 3 presents how platform-based delivery work promotes or undermines the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness as outlined in the SDT. The findings from the study showed that need satisfaction was partial and uneven, with some elements of the work supporting riders’ psychological needs, and others constraining the fulfilment of these needs. The study highlighted that the experience of need satisfaction was shaped not only by the nature of the work itself but also by broader structural conditions at the national, community and individual levels. These findings underscore the importance of understanding needsatisfaction as a dynamic and contextually embedded process, rather than a fixed outcome of particular job features. The research contributes to practice by its identification of context-sensitive strategies to improve working conditions for platform-based delivery riders and other workers in precarious roles. These include strengthening co-worker support networks, fostering respectful supervisory communication, developing points-based or symbolic recognition systems, and expanding access to forms of social protection. The findings have implications for platform companies, vocational psychologists, civil society organisations, and private-sector partners. By identifying the structural constraints and psychological resources that shape the experiences of work in precarious contexts, this research offers ideas for inclusive and transformative practice. Although the study focussed on platform-based motorbike delivery riders in South Africa, the findings may be applied more broadly across sectors and geographies where informal and platform-based work is expanding. The research underscores the importance of context-sensitive tools and interventions that recognise not only structural inequality, but also the agency, relationships, and dignity through which workers construct meaningful lives. As such, it contributes to a more responsive and socially just practice of vocational psychology that is better equipped to engage with the realities of work in the 21st-century labour market.