This research explored how structural inequalities are reproduced and contested within the UK social care sector. A decolonizing lens allowed questioning the cultural and theoretical assumptions embedded in mainstream work and organizational psychology which create a restricted range of possible solutions to work challenges. Drawing parallels with context-sensitive African perspectives on relationality and collective wellbeing, the study foregrounds the lived experiences of frontline care workers and managers, revealing how delivery of care, application of resilience, and justice are enacted within constrained organizational systems. The study employed a two-phase qualitative design. The first phase used a deductive occupational psychology framework to analyze interviews with 15 frontline care workers. However, the limitations of this framework became apparent as participants described experiences beyond its conceptual reach. A subsequent inductive analysis allowed emergent meanings that reflected participants' situated realities. In the second phase, ten interviews with care managers were analysed inductively to explore leadership as relational and contextually embedded practice. Findings highlighted how structural inequalities, regulatory and funding structures, alongside dominant narratives of productivity and compliance, perpetuated ongoing inequalities and emotional strain. Yet, participants also articulated collective forms of agency, creating informal wellbeing practices and mutual care networks that resonate with communitarian approaches to work and identity, echoing the African principle of Ubuntu ("I am because you are"). This research demonstrates the need to re-evaluate work psychology frameworks through plural and culturally grounded perspectives. It argues that future applied psychology must center context, lived experience, and relational ethics to advance workplace justice and wellbeing both within and beyond African and diaspora contexts.