Mr Matita Tshabalala is a lecturer and the honours program coordinator in the Department of Industrial and Organisational Psychology at Nelson Mandela University. He is a registered Industrial and Organisational Psychologist with the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) and one of the few Aviation Psychologists on the African continent, registered with the European Association of Aviation Psychology (EAAP). He holds a Master of Arts in Industrial Psychology from the University of South Africa with prior degrees from the University of Johannesburg and the University of Cape Town.
His academic work is grounded in over two decades of senior and specialist corporate experience across Human Resources, Organisational Development, Operations, Strategy, and Safety including an extensive career in air traffic management. This practitioner-scholar orientation informs both his teaching and his research, which sits at the intersection of human performance, occupational wellbeing, and organisational systems.
Matita has published in the Ergonomics SA Journal and contributed a chapter to the internationally published volume Mistakes, Errors and Failures across Cultures (Springer, 2020). He is an active member of the Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology of South Africa (SIOPSA).
Research Interests
Mr Tshabalala’s research is oriented around three interconnected areas:
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Human Factors and Safety in High-Reliability Environments
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Human performance in safety-critical and high-stakes occupational settings
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Fatigue, stress, and error management in aviation and air traffic management
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Safety culture, safety climate, and organisational resilience
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Occupational Health and Psychological Wellbeing
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Occupational stress, burnout, and coping in demanding work environments
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Mental health and wellbeing of safety-critical workers
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Work-life integration and human sustainability
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Organisational Psychology in Practice
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Culture transformation and change management
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Talent management, performance, and human performance optimisation
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Psychometric assessment and psycho-diagnostics in organisational contexts