Change in the new South Africa

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The miracle birth of the New South Africa has now passed, but the transformation of the broad community and all its institutions has just begun. There can hardly be an organisation in this country; not undergoing change and this affects not only the country and the organisation, but also almost every individual on a personal and professional level. Many organisations are setting international precedents in terms of change management, especially in respect of stakeholders'
accommodation in governance structures. However, most organisations are not successful. What characterised the change in South Africa is that there are few rules:

“Change managers in particular are acting in a play which has not yet been fully written, never mind rehearsed”
Terry Meyer

Some of the key issues facing South African organisations and individuals are the following:

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a.) Democratisation

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Fundamentally it has to do with stakeholder participation. At corporate level it is concerned with
governance structures and stakeholder involvement in strategic change. Organisations have to
involve employees in their attempts to become world-class. This requires management, supervisors,
shop stewards, unions and employees to develop new understandings, a variety of new skills as well
as to confront significant value shifts.

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b.) Reconstruction & Development

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If the country fails to fulfil the promises, demands and expectations of the RDP, its economic future faces serious threats. The RDP has the potential to inject capital into the economy and grow many skills necessary for sustainability, thereby kick-starting economic growth. Once again the implications for change management are enormous.

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c.) Affirmative Action

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In its broadest sense, affirmative action involves a wide variety of strategies concerned with human development. Emotive issues include possible legislation to force a quota system, tokenism and structural and subliminal racism. More constructively it has to do with economic empowerment through appropriate board appointments and participation of black business in corporate South Africa. It also has to do with skills formation, individual growth, confidence and empowerment. All of these place enormous stress on change management in the organisation.

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d.) From training to learning

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South African companies need employees with access to information, knowledge and understanding when confronted by complex problems. The change management implication is that, in order to survive, the emphasis needs to be shifted from the provision of merely education and training, to the management and facilitation of multi-dimensional learning.

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e.) Diversity

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The new South African Company is characterised by increased racial, cultural, ethnic and gender differences.
Work groups are made up of people with many backgrounds, people that were not exposed to the working environment before. The diversity or multiculturalism management challenge will be to implement the three “R's” - to recruit, retain and release the full potential of every employee.

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e.) Traits of organisational change

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Any-large scale organisational change in a company will entail at least one of the following traits, and keeping this in mind, might help South African change managers to write and rehearse the “change play”.

Trait 1 - Multiple transitions
Rather than being confined to one transition, complex changes often involve many different transitions. Some may be explicitly related others may not.

Trait 2 - Uncertain future state
It if difficult to predict or define exactly what the future state will be. There are many unknowns that limit the ability to describe it. Even when it can be described, there is a high probability that events will change the nature of the state before it has been achieved.

Trait 3 - Incomplete transitions
Many of the transitions that are initiated do not get completed. Events often overtake them, or subsequent changes subsume them.

Trait 4 - Transitions over long periods of time
Many large-scale organisational changes take a long time to implement - in some cases as much as three to six years. The dynamics of managing change over this period are different from those of managing a quick change initiative with a discrete beginning and end.

Trait 5 - Everything looks like failure in the middle
In nearly every change project, doubt is cast on the original vision because problems are mounting and the end seems to be nowhere in sight. Reality is that change is often messy, chaotic and painful, no matter what precautions are taken to smooth the process.

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