Abstract:
Business rescue is considered a new process in South Africa (Du Preez, 2012). To date the business rescue process has yielded minimal success and resulted in numerous organisations having to be liquidated. The business rescue process involves numerous stakeholders, yet existing research has focused much attention on business owners, business rescue practitioners and creditors (Lusinga & Fairhurst, 2020).
Employees can best be described as an organisation’s most valuable assets (Juan, Yao, Binti, Tamyez & Ozavize, 2019). Such assets should not be overlooked as they remain an important stakeholder in the business rescue process (Lusinga & Fairhurst, 2020).
The research study set out to provide a platform for a crucial stakeholder of the business rescue process namely, the employees, to share their voice their experience and perceptions of the business rescue process in addition to exploring their commitment levels during business rescue. The research study involved a qualitative research design, whereby 17 semi-structured and open-ended interviews were conducted with employees of SME businesses undertaking business rescue within Gauteng, South Africa. The research study employed purposive and snowball sampling methods.
The research findings established that employee’s commitment levels were influenced during business rescue. The findings suggested that more employee’s described increased commitment levels during a time of distress, followed by those fewer employees who mentioned decreased commitment levels. The research established that employee commitment levels are largely influenced by personal, interpersonal and organisational factors, such as remuneration, understanding of the business rescue process and duration of service.
