Contents
CASE STUDY 1: SURVIVING THROUGH NEW ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN.
The managers of Khatu Mining (Pty) Ltd are worried that their organisation is not working well or if the environment they operate in has changed, which renders their operating strategy and organisational structure obsolete. The current Covid-19 pandemic has caused an “event horizon” for all organisations and even the mining sectors in which they operate. Executives are thinking of re-structuring or adopting a new organisational design in 2022. However, organisation design is difficult, as it aims to take a complex entity, dissect and analyse it and then rebuild it so it functions better. This requires a mixture of analytical work and visualization of the data. Some managers in the company shy away from embarking on an organisation design initiative.
Redesigning a company is a large undertaking that needs expertise and experience to get it right. If the organisation needs to improve performance, only a little, then this option might be suitable. However, if the organisation needs to improve its performance substantially or faces a significant threat, a new strategy and organisational structure will be required. A good strategy is to be unique. It means selecting a specific set of activities to deliver a distinctive combination of value and enrolling the organisation to provide its products and services most effectively. In implementing the new organisational structure at Khatu Mining (Pty) Ltd, various managerial roles need to be effectively carried by managers. Even though managers carry out the responsibilities of planning, organizing, leading, and controlling, managers take on many different roles. A role is a set of behavioural expectations, or a set of activities that a person is expected to perform. Managers’ roles fall into three basic categories: informational roles, interpersonal roles, and decisional roles.
QUESTION 1
As an advisor to Khatu Mining (Pty) Ltd, evaluate the matrix structure and boundryless structure as the two contemporary organisational structures. (20)
QUESTION 2
Briefly explain to the managers of Khatu Mining (Pty) Ltd what managerial roles entail and suggest ways in which they can improve in each of their roles. (20)
CASE STUDY 2: KEEPING COMPANY CULTURE ALIVE – A 2021 CHALLENGE FOR HR.
Over two fifths (43%) of HR leaders said keeping a strong company culture alive will be their biggest challenge in 2026, as their organisations continue to work virtually and develop new hybrid working arrangements. “Company culture is key to employee motivation and business performance, so it’s not surprising that HR leaders are thinking about it. This year, many have focused on the fun stuff – virtual games, gifts and surprises – but this is only part of the picture and organisations need to see every employee interaction as an opportunity to forge new hybrid working cultures. “Given hybrid working is here to stay, delivering a consistent digital experience for employees regardless of location should be top of the list. This will require HR to think more strategically about how to bring the physical and digital
elements of the workplace together and look at how each employee touchpoint can help to capture, foster and embed organisational culture.” Comments Musa Mabesa, CEO at GEPF. In addition to keeping the company culture alive, HR leaders noted a number of other key challenges they’ve experienced in shifting to a digital employee experience during the pandemic: not being able to notice when employees are struggling with their mental health as easily (31%), onboarding employees remotely (24%) and keeping up with a very high level of questions and requests (21%).
QUESTION 3
Musa Mabesa indicated that keeping an organisational culture alive is one of the biggest challenges in 2026. Provide any 5 relevant strategies suitable to create and reinforce company culture in the current technologically driven business environment and give an example of how you would apply them. (10)
CASE STUDY 3: RURAL LIMPOPO WOMEN PROTEST AGAINST SEFATENG CHROME MINE.
Women from a rural village in Limpopo have spent cold nights sleeping under a tree near the entrance to a mine operating in their area. They have been there since June to stop the mine owners from transporting thousands of chrome deposits stockpiled on the property. The move is part of an ongoing battle between the Ga-Mampa community, who are shareholders in the Sefateng Chrome Mine, and the mine’s owners, which include a state-owned company. The village is in Sekhukhune, a rural area along one of the country’s lucrative platinum group mining belts, and a bustling mining hub that is a major contributor to the Limpopo GDP. In papers filed in the Polokwane high court in August, the Ditlou Mampa Traditional Authority and the Mampa Serole Community Trust, which own 1.67% shares in the mine, are asking the court to review and set aside the mining right and permit granted to Sefateng Chrome Mine. Community members said mining operations ceased last year, and moves are now afoot to develop the operation into an underground mine.
The Ga-Mampa community is involved in a dispute over the terms of the underground operation. Julia Sekgobela, chairperson of Sefateng Business Forum, which represents the village’s traders and entrepreneurs, said Sefateng Chrome had cited running at a loss as the reason it failed to pay the community’s dividends. They have been stockpiling the chrome and now they are selling it, which means the community would benefit nothing. That is theft,” said Sekgobela. The applicants want the court to compel the mining house “to provide all annual financial statements, reports by directors with respect to the state of affairs, the business, profit and or loss of the company within a period of seven days.” CMR, which owns 55% in the operation, is wholly owned by the Limpopo Economic Development Agency (Leda), an agency of the Limpopo department of economic development, environment and tourism. Numerous attempts to reach Sefateng Chrome Mine for comment were unsuccessful. The office of the regional land claims commissioner also failed to respond to requests for comment.
The community members, irked that Sefateng Chrome was continuing to move thousands of tons of chrome deposits from the mine while the legal matter was pending, blockaded the road leading to the mine with rocks and tree branches, leading to a stand-off with police. “The mine management insisted on taking the chrome, even though we were yet to have discussions on this matter. That’s when the community started sleeping here to guard our chrome,” said Mosibudi Mampa of the Ditlou Mampa Traditional Authority. Various community members alleged that the trucks transporting chrome from the mine did not follow regulations, such as going through a weighbridge to register the weight of the minerals they were carrying.
They also claimed that some of the trucks did not have registration plates and that they were not certain if they had the required permits showing where the minerals were being transported to. Mampa said these are the main reasons behind the community members camping near the mine to monitor the trucks. Sekgobela said the community has never received any dividends from its 1.67% shareholding
and that the mine’s owners had never met any of their obligations as stipulated in its social labour plan (SLP). Mining companies are required by law to submit their plans, outlining how the community will benefit, to the department of mineral resources in their applications for mining rights. Sekgobela said some of the commitments in the SLP included providing skills training for locals, but this had not been met. She said part of the agreement was that a monthly amount of R40 000 would be paid in the community’s trust account for loss of surface rights, but this has never been paid. “When we asked about this, they said the mine was running at a loss. We then asked for financial statements. But these never came,” she said. She said in 2017 the parties agreed that the community would receive 1% from every chrome truckload being transported from the mine. She said there had been some irregular payments of between R5 000 and R20 000 each, but these stopped without any explanation in October last year.
A South African Human Rights Commission report on socioeconomic challenges facing similar communities noted that many of them “continue to experience significant levels of poverty and systemic inequality, which reinforces the notion that the benefits of mining operations disproportionately favour mining companies [and] the state and are often to the detriment of local communities.”
QUESTION 4
Compliance to ethical obligations and social responsibility by mining companies has been the biggest challenge for majority of communities living in mining areas within South Africa. Explain the organisation’s ethical obligations and evaluate Sefateng Chrome Mine adherence to ethical responsibilities. (20)
QUESTION 5
Julia Sekgobela, Chairperson of Sefateng Business Forum, played a significant role as a representative of her community and took steps together with her community to ensure that their challenges are addressed. Describe FIVE components of emotional intelligence and provide five (5) situations from the case study whereby Julia Sekgobela displayed the components of emotional intelligence.
Expert Answers on Above Questions on Organisational Design
Surviving through new organizational design
Matrix structure versus boundary less structure – In case of Matrix structure, proper coordination is established across functional departments and project teams. In this structure, the employees are required to report to more than one manager. This structure is effective as it improves collaboration across departments, facilitates knowledge sharing and innovation, and provides opportunity for efficient utilisation of resources. However, its disadvantages include role conflict and confusion because of reporting to multiple managers, and there are higher possibilities of power struggles between managers.
Boundaryless structure on the other hand promotes flexibility, collaboration and open communication across departments by removing traditional organisational barriers. It is effective in facilitating faster decision making processes, encourages Innovation and teamwork and supports collaboration. On the negative side, it is less formal and it can create confusion about responsibilities among the members, and requires strong leadership and communication.
For organisations like Khatu mining, the Matrix structure is useful in allowing its geologists, engineers and project managers to work together on mining projects and thereby in achieving efficiency, and better coordination across teams. The boundaryless structure would help Khatu mining in achieving better coordination with suppliers, contractors and technology partners which will allow the company to adapt to changes according to the external environment.
Managerial Roles
The managers are required to perform different rules in organisation and they can be categorised into different categories such as interpersonal roles well by managers interact with employees and represent the organisation, informational roles which allows managers to collect and distribute important information, and decisional roles that are crucial in making decisional roles affecting the organisation.
Keeping the company culture alive
Strategies to reinforce company culture – the strategies that are essential to reinforce company culture are to facilitate strong digital communication, promote employee recognition program, support virtual team building activities, effective remote on boarding and ensuring leadership transparency.
Rural Limpopo women protest against sefateng chrome mine
Ethical obligations and social responsibility – it is important for businesses to operate in a responsible way and to have positive impact on stakeholders and communities from their business activities. With respect to mining companies, the ethical obligations include ensuring complete transparency and accountability, complaints with legal regulation and mining permits, fair distribution of economic benefits to the community, protecting the environment and undertaking sustainable practices and fulfilling social labour plans to support community development.
In respect to Sefateng chrome mine, there are ethical failures identified in respect to a number of areas such as lack of financial statements for important stakeholders, expected dividends were not disbursed to the community, social labour plan commitments were not fulfilled and there were allegations of irregular chrome transportation and lack of transparency. Poor corporate governance and lack of accountability were clearly evident in respect to mine’s operation.
Emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence is all about understanding and managing emotions with the objective of building relationships. The important components of emotional intelligence include self awareness, self regulation, motivation, empathy and social skills.
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