Organisational alignment of South African mining organisations

Abstract

Background: South African mining organisations are facing numerous challenges: decreasing commodity prices, policy uncertainty, rising input costs and increasing stakeholder expectations. To successfully address these challenges, each mining organisation needs to respond in a unified, aligned way.

Objectives: This study determined the degree of perceived organisational alignment among managers within South-African-based mining organisations and uncovered the key enablers of organisational alignment.

Method: Data were collected from 286 managers from a selection of all the major South African mining commodity sectors on their perceptions of the degree of organisational alignment, as well as on the enablers of organisational alignment. Applying structural equation modelling, 5 of the 11 organisational alignment enabling factors indicated a unique influence of practical importance on perceived organisational alignment. Three data-model fit tests confirmed the pattern of variances and covariance in the data.

Results: This study not only presented a concept of perceived organisational alignment and associated enabling factors but also provided a wide range of recommendations on how each of the enabling factors can be leveraged in order to improve perceived organisational alignment.

Conclusion: Taking a largely sociological perspective of organisational functioning within the South African mining industry’s fast-changing internal and external stakeholder environment, this study contributed to the discipline of strategy planning and execution in general and in particular to the subject area of organisational alignment.