Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management

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    Dimensions of culture in relation to teamwork for South Africans living abroad
    (2011-06-15) Singh, Ashika
    South Africa has experienced changing times. It is a country that has undergone many political changes that involved various ethnic groups. Managing diversity brings benefits but requires skills and training. Organisations therefore need to manage diversity effectively. Organisations need to understand culture in order to mould it into a high performance culture. Teamwork exists in various areas such as the sporting world and the corporate world, and there are many challenges that teams need to overcome in order to perform optimally. Organisations need to address virtual and geographical team issues and support these teams. Companies must select the correct expatriates and support them according to their individual needs. The aim of this study was to test the findings of the study conducted by Weimer (2006) with the added dimension of investigating the self-identified diversity characteristic of South Africans living both locally and abroad, in relation to the teamwork profiles described by Hofstede (2001). The questionnaires as used by the Weimer (2006) study were distributed to respondents based in three countries namely South Africa, United Kingdom and the Middle East (Qatar and Dubai). Seventy-five completed questionnaires were returned. The profile obtained by Weimer (2006) noted that South African ethnic groups have a distinct profile with no major variations between groups, transcending race, religion and ethnicity. This study confirmed the results obtained by Weimer (2006). It was found that employees‟ values held with regard to teamwork, do not differ based on the country where they are located.
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    Diversity management in a South African financial services organization
    (2011-06-06) Obeng, Cynthia
    Today's complex global workplace comprises people of diverse race, culture and ethnicity. Diversity within heterogeneous groups can evolve into stereotypical perceptions about the abilities, behaviours and attitudes of peole based on factors such as race, language and cultural background, which impact negatively on satisfaction and performance, and on organizational effectiveness. Organizations need to pursue initiatives that foster a culture of inclusion among the various groups and also to develop human resources practices that focus on stereotypical perceptions and behaviours. This should ensure that individuals within the organizations feel valued, and believe that their contributions are relevant and important to the development of the organization. Undoubtedly, managing a diverse workforce effectively can yield substantial benefits to organizations. The socio-political context in democratic South Africa necessitates that organizations adopt programmes and initiatives to meet various statutory employment equity targets and other sectoral commitments. The purpose of this study was to identify the key success factors of managing diversity within the ABSA Group. The single case study methodology was employed based on the reputation of the ABSA Group on people management, and also, having won accolades for its diversity management programme. Interviews were conducted with management and employees and analysed in light of the proositions generated from a review of the applicable literature on diversity management. In view of the highly contextual nature of the diversity management programme at the ABSA Group, the outcome of the study can only be relevant within the organization. Caution must be exercised in the drawing of any inferences and generalizations, and also in transferring the outcome outside the organization.
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    A MODEL FOR MANAGING DIVERSITY IN ORGANISATIONS
    (2011-04-13) Govindsamy, Thiruvasan
    Increasing levels of cultural diversity in the workforce poses one of the most challenging human resource and organisational issues of our time. Increased workforce diversity means that organisations are becoming more heterogeneous in terms of gender, race and ethnicity. Such diverse people will, when placed in similar situations, perceive these situations differently and act differently in them. While diversity typically provides different perspectives on the same problem or situation it makes it more difficult to unify teams working together and to reach agreements. For this reason, workforce diversity has implications for organisational performance. However, unlike some other countries of the world, the effective management of workforce diversity is not a matter of choice in South Africa. It is crucial to the future prosperity and stability of the country and, possibly, the region. Notwithstanding the South African situation, however, there are a number of other global motivations driving the shift towards diversity in the workplace and, as a consequence, elevating the importance of the effective management of workforce diversity. A phenomenal surge in the growth of emerging markets, the extensive use of cross-functional, heterogeneous teams to produce creative solutions to business problems, an increased reliance on non-traditional workforce talent and the realities of today’s workplace clearly demonstrate that diversity management has become a critical aspect of operating a business. The drive for diversity is, therefore, a business imperative. The purpose of this study was to identify key success factors for diversity management initiatives in organisations and to develop a model for the successful management of diversity. Owing to the context-rich nature of diversity management initiatives it was decided to use the multiple case study methodology, using three case studies. These three case studies were analysed in the light of research propositions generated from a review of the relevant literature on diversity management. While this methodology was able to facilitate the formulation of key success factors for diversity management initiatives and the development of a model for managing diversity within organisations, the context-rich nature of the diversity management initiatives implied that caution needed to be exercised when these key success factors were generalised and the model applied to other diversity management initiatives.