CORPORATE CULTS AND WAYS OF LIFE WITHIN A LARGE PETROCHEMICAL CONCERN

Abstract

Corporate cults are created by employees within their workplaces to fill certain gaps in their lives. This phenomenon is characterised by three constructs of: devotion, charismatic leadership and separation from community. The five ways of life are based on the group-grid typology. An exploratory study was conducted within Sasol Infrachem to determine the extent of corporate cults and the dominant way of life for the organisation. The study was based on a self completion questionnaire. The results indicated that workers within Infrachem were “somewhat culted” with high scores for devotion and charismatic leadership. The dominant ways of life were those of the hierarchists and the individualists. This finding concurs with previous studies of South African companies. There is evidence to suggest that the future direction of Infrachem supports the furtherance of corporate cults with a greater degree of separation from community resulting in the workers being classified as “highly culted”.