Culture In South Africa Essay

Culture in a South African context

Introduction

In 1994 Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu coined the phrase “the rainbow nation” to describe post- apartheid South Africa. This term was used to capture the new nature of South Africa, as nation rich in culture, which celebrates diversity. However twenty years after democracy South Africa still has one of the largest wealth gaps in the world meaning there is big inequality between different levels of staff i.e. management level and labourers. By closely analysing the manufacturing industry in South Africa, this essay will explore main organisational culture present in each level of employment and the main issues between different the types of employees.

To research this topic, an interview was conducted at Switchboard Group, a manufacturing entity in Johannesburg, with the head of the human resources department Mr Thumi Dladla-Mashao

General culture of the business

Before we can explore the difference between management and general staff, it is necessary to discuss the general corporate culture in this industry. Handy said that organisational culture could be classified in four categories:

1) Culture Club, this type of culture is mainly present in small firms. It is informal culture with primary focus on the owner and is effective if there is strong leadership and its main advantage is the ability to make quick decisions.

2) Role Culture, This is hierarchical with different roles that need to be fulfilled meaning that there is a chain of command in place who make sure all the different jobs are done. A disadvantage is that employees are seen as less important then the positions that they fill. This culture is best for established businesses with defined and routine jobs and it will incre...

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...nduction the company tries to reinforce its desired culture on the staff by setting out expectations and explaining the hierarchy in the business. They often try to convince the labourers that they are easily replaceable which discourages workers from brining up complaints, as they are afraid that they will be dismissed.

Conclusion

Overall in South Africa’s manufacturing industry there are still fundamental cultural differences between management level employees and general floor staff level employees. This verity leads to a number of predominate problems such as a difference in mind- set and general attitude towards the business. Corporate culture is often defined as “the way things are done around here” (Deal and Kennedy, 1982). It is quite clear that at the moment there is still a large gap between the ways things are done at each level of employment.