The impact of organisational culture on gold mining activities in the Free State

Abstract

From the Stone Age, each nation or group of people has had a distrust of those different from themselves. This is evidenced in various ways, for example, social welfare given to local residents only, scornful names given to foreigners and other ethnic groups and rituals designed to keep themselves separate from others. These incidents of diversity resulted into an unplanned and emergent set of norms, values and beliefs that exert enormous influence on the way in which an organisation operates, how organisational structure is developed, the integration and adaptation of internal and external relationships, as well as the orientation of the underlying values of the organisation.

The main aim of changing culture is to improve organisational performance. To achieve this aim, it requires an understanding of the underlying assumptions and values that determine what is important in an organisation as well as assessment of the impact of culture on operational efficiency. The impact of organisational culture is identified through the negative and positive outcomes of mining activities, and is illustrated by employee satisfaction, job commitment, organisational loyalty, turnover, absenteeism and productivity.

The aim of this research study was to identify the characteristics of organisational culture and evaluate the impact of organisational culture on gold mining activities in the Free State. The methodology used in this study comprises of empirical as well as a literature study. Questionnaires and interviews were used to gather information for the empirical study.

The empirical study revealed that firstly, organisational culture is created partially by leaders, and that one of the most critical functions of leadership is the creation and the management of culture. Lastly, organisational culture emerges when employees think, believe and act according to the pressures and priorities of their environment. Unfortunately, employees do not set aside their cultural values and lifestyle preferences when they come to work. It is the responsibility of the management to create an environment that is conducive to a healthy working environment.

This study established that the necessity to control the workforce productivity need not be accompanied by ruthless or aggressive exploitation of cultural management, but by reliance on employees’ capability to exercise judgement to cope effectively with environmental uncertainty. Rules, norms and strategies developed cannot “fit” every circumstance but encourage conformity rather than creativity, and compliance rather than commitment.