South African Organisations and International Companies in South Africa

by Jonelle Naudé

In general all organisations in South Africa need to understand their equity requirements and need to be committed to their transformation goals. Taking a company through a transformation journey is hard enough, but international companies with branches in South Africa often struggle even more understanding the context and requirements.

South Africa has a Liberal Market Economy culture in business and industry. This is coupled with more protectionist labour policies for some industries, and the general Broad-based black economic empowerment policy resembling a more ‘Coordinated Market Economy’-type intervention by government.

Often conflicting policies lead to weak coordination, sometimes augmented by patrimony and corruption in some arenas. Dominant narratives in academic literature often illustrate a story of ideological and/or factional clashes between organised labour and government (often voiced through treasury) that sit at the root of conflicting policies as a contributing factor to unemployment. Therefore, to navigate and understand the space of transformation, organisations need systemic and intuitive transformation journeys, expertly guided and facilitated. These processes need to be embedded in a drive for inclusive systemic transformation.

Furthermore, ethnic, racial and gender cleavages still run deep in our post-apartheid collective. It is often assumed that business culture can gloss over these undercurrents, for the sake of ‘effective working relationships’. This could not be further from the truth. Misconceptions, assumptions, ignorance and misinformation about each other and our worlds often drive an underlying sense of mistrust and disconnect. These perpetuating biases, ‘othering’ and/or need to alienate one from one’s true self ultimately create a less effective organisational culture, limit team potential, get in the way of true agility, and stifles alignment and synergy. 

What is needed is an ongoing commitment and dedication to safe and inclusive organisational culture - and doing the real work to facilitate and create that.

We are here to help you do just that.