It was November 2006, just over a year since Shani Naidoo had taken up the position of HR director for the Foschini Group (FOS). Having worked in HR at FOS for 12 years previously (before taking up an HR position elsewhere for three years), Naidoo was no stranger to the organisation. She also knew that for HR to contribute strategically to the group, its model needed to change. Now she had developed an entirely new HR model which was ready for implementation in the new year. Naidoo was considering how best to do this, given that the new strategy would fundamentally change the way in which everyone in the organisation operated, not just the staff in HR. Having been appointed to the FOS board only one month previously, she could not afford to fail. The success of the organisation hinged on successfully managing its people.

No.of pages: 17

This case describes events prior to those detailed in Foschini Group Ltd: Transforming HR below

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Thomas Bowler, MD of Pipeco, reflected on what had been an eventful, but unsatisfactory, 12 months. In October 1997, with the support of the Chemical Workers' Industrial Union (CWIU), which represented workers at Pipeco's plants, he had taken the company into the Workplace Challenge Project - a productivity improvement initiative devised by the National Economic, Labour and Development Council (NEDLAC).

But his attempt to introduce this workplace change project had not been successful. One key incident that came to mind was the workers' boycott of the Workplace Challenge earlier in the year. As far as Bowler and other managers were aware, employee buy-in had been obtained. But when the CWIU's local organiser arrived at the Roodekop plant on 26 May for a meeting of the newly-established bipartite working group, no shop stewards were present. The workers had mandated their shop steward representatives not to attend the meeting. The boycott lasted two weeks. Bowler felt that if he could understand why the workers had boycotted the Workplace Challenge, then he would better understand how to achieve co-operation between management and workers in South Africa.

No. Pages: 28   

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In 2012, South Africa was still one of the countries with the highest prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the world. Statistics SA estimated that in 2011, 10.6% of the total population and 16.6% of the adult population (people between 15 and 49 years of age) were HIV positive.

According to Suzanne Leclerc-Madlala, Leickness Simbayi and Allanise Cloete, all researchers at the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), certain cultural factors contributed to the spread of sexual diseases in South Africa. They noted that African groups were traditionally polygynous and made allowances for men to have extramarital relationships and to seek other wives after their first marriage. “While many men today marry monogamously in accordance with Christian rites, many continue polygynous relationships in an informal way through extramarital concurrent partnering,” they observed, adding: “Whilst traditional polygyny has declined in many African societies, men in present-day South Africa commonly engage in multiple and concurrent partnerships.” They pointed out that sex with multiple and concurrent partners had been identified as a key behavioural cause of HIV in southern and South Africa.

No. of pages: 17

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In August 2002, Matthew Thompson, head of the structured finance division at Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) faced an unusual dilemma. One of the top performers in his unit, Bruce Clarke, appeared to pose a significant threat to the team spirit of his division. While a remarkably talented individual, Clarke was difficult to get along with and eccentric in his ways. RMB’s dictum was “traditional values, innovative ideas”. Clarke subscribed to the “innovative ideas” part, but seemed to fall short when it came to “traditional values” – to a point where his behaviour was unacceptable.

Before making a rash decision, Thompson felt compelled to consider other factors such as irrational jealousies and rivalries that may be masking an otherwise benign situation. Dismissing Clarke could have severe consequences for his division’s earnings, yet would the Structured Finance division be able to continue successfully with him as part of the team?

No. Pages: 33 

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In September 2012, IT firm Dimension Data paid out R1.26 billion to the various participants in a broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) deal that the company had signed eight years earlier. When Dimension Data had first embarked on its empowerment journey, legislated BEE in South Africa had been in its fledgling stages and, to a large extent, companies such as Dimension Data had to write their own rules. On the eve of the payout, Jeremy Ord, Dimension Data’s executive chairman, reflected on the outcomes of the deal, including the successful growth of the company’s Middle East and Africa (MEA) division. He wondered, too, what he would do differently, if he had to do it all over again.

No of pages:  18

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Barbara Care, Human Resources Director of Stride Pharmaceuticals, invested considerable effort during the past few years, developing sound human resources practices and ensuring that the company complied with the labour legislation of South Africa.

The promulgation of the Employment Equity Act in 1998 presented the company with new challenges. Care still had major concerns about its ultimate success beyond the purely legislative requirements. She considered how employment equity could become integral to the strategy of the company.

No. Pages: 23 

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Foschini Group’s (FOS) Shani Naidoo was in excellent spirits when she walked out of a two-day group strategy meeting in October 2009. As managing director for group human resources (HR) since 2005, it was evident that the changes that she and her team had implemented had successfully made HR a critical part of Foschini’s overall business strategy. In pursuit of their vision to get rid of the company’s silo mentality, the HR team had introduced a totally new, centralised HR model. Despite the shake-up, Naidoo believed there was still a great deal more that needed to change. She did wonder, however, if she might have gone too far.

No.of pages: 18

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By April 2009, Hollard Insurance had been in Arcadia, its new building, for a little over three years. A key motive behind the move had been to draw all Hollard employees together, so as to sustain and reinforce a common culture and facilitate communication across business units. Now, Hollard’s CEO, Nic Kohler, had a few things to consider: had the new building had an impact on Hollard’s culture, and on balance; had this been positive; and should he now move the company’s call centres to a smaller town, where competition for talent would be less intense? This might improve employee retention and better enable the company to invest in its call centre employees. At the same time, it would lower the salary bill. But would it also alienate the call centre employees, who provided a critical interface with Hollard’s customers? If Hollard did decide to move them off-site, what should he do to minimise the potential negative effects of doing this?

No.of pages: 11

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Nedcor Bank management considered the strategic re-positioning of the HR function at Nedcor, along the lines of a proposed new HR model for the bank. The plan was to retain a central HR function for decentralised commercial units to have a high degree of autonomy with regard to HR management. The extent to which the HR function should be autonomous in the separate business units, and the exact role that would be played by the central HR function, had to be determined to ensure that the HR function created value and delivered tangible results. Faced by an increasingly hostile banking environment, management could not afford to make a mistake.

No. Pages: 26

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In 2014, South Africa experienced its longest and costliest strike ever: a five-month stoppage in the platinum sector that cast doubt on the institutions and culture of the country’s labour relations framework.  After the strike came to an end in late June, the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac)  convened a meeting to discuss ways of preventing further violent and protracted industrial action. Among the questions confronting delegates at this gathering was whether labour unrest could be addressed by altering the laws and institutions regulating strikes. Or would any such reforms prove largely futile in the absence of political and economic change?

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By May 2006, Dr Trevor Fisher, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Kalafong Hospital (situated to the west of Pretoria and one of South Africa’s largest regional hospitals) was at his wits’ end over the staff shortages at the hospital. There were shortages in all staff categories, but that of nursing staff in particular was making it very difficult to provide an acceptable level of health care. Fisher’s numerous letters and attempts to resolve the issue with the Gauteng Department of Health had not yet met with success. Now, reading a damning report by the official opposition in Parliament, the Democratic Alliance (DA), on the state of nursing in South Africa, he wondered if there was anything he could do to improve the situation at Kalafong.

No. Pages: 12 

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In Lechabile, a small black empowerment IT company, a two-fold strategic issue had to be resolved: how the numerous growth opportunities that presented themselves should be managed; and how options for achieving growth should be evaluated. Concomitant with this, the number of employees was increasing. Management felt that a formal performance management system was needed that would be in keeping with their culture of empowerment.

No.of pages: 19

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In early 2006, Tikkun Consulting (Pty), a niche, public-sector focussed, legal consultancy was plunged into heated conflict when the firm’s co-director, Thandeka Mathabane (who owned 60% of the company and generated much of its business), accepted a government brief to identify legal alternatives to marriage as a way of recognising gay and lesbian unions. Several members of the firm were unhappy that Mathabane had accepted the brief, with one threatening to resign, while Mathabane refused to give up the contract, declaring that her professional work should not be subjected to personal judgments. With a lean staff of 12 professionals, the firm’s founder, Joshua Goldstein could not afford to lose either his co-director or his employees. He was under tremendous pressure to resolve the organizational conflict, which threatened the very existence of the company.

No. Pages: 6 

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It was that time of year again: performance appraisal and salary review time. Nadia Strom, the new branch manager at the Pentlands branch of Barrows Bank, had one of her most difficult appraisals coming up the next day. The performance of branch accountant, Michael Nyageri, was not up to standard and was affecting the overall performance of the branch. She had to decide how to handle the appraisal and how to map a way forward with him towards improved performance.

No. Pages: 6 

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In February 2015, Llewellyn Walters, CEO of Massbuild, the building products division of Massmart, a warehouse retail organisation, was perplexed by the results of the 2014 employee engagement survey. The survey showed that employee engagement had continued to decline for a third year. Walters reflected on his decision in 2009 to work on the adage “culture will eat strategy for breakfast” and initiate a culture change process as a means of ensuring that Massbuild achieved its strategic objectives. The decision to go the culture route had not only led to better results, but also facilitated decisions regarding the division’s brands and resulted in renewed customer focus. He wondered what more the organisation could do to reinforce its culture.

No of Pages:  31

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Massbuild is the building products division of Massmart, a South African-based warehouse retail organisation that Walmart acquired in 2012. The details in this case span a period from 2009 (prior to the acquisition by Walmart) to 2015.

No of Pages:  6

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In July 2016, MTN’s newly appointed CEO, Rob Shuter, was considering how it was possible that the company had been fined US$5.2 billion (R78 billion) by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) in October 2015. He also wondered what could be done to prevent a debacle of this magnitude from reoccurring. It appeared that leaders were not paying attention to the issues and, most importantly, had neglected and had failed to adhere to vital regulations. The transgression was clear. MTN had failed to ensure that subscribers had registered their SIM cards in terms of the international Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act (RICA). The situation that resulted in the NCC imposing the fine should have been obvious to MTN’s leadership – but was it?

Categories: Human Resources, Leadership

No of pages: 19

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In November 2010, Clifford Barnett – director and co-owner of family business, SA Metal Group (SA Metal) – put his hard hat down on his desk, looked out on the busy scrapyard below his window in Epping, Cape Town and pondered the company’s growth. In 2001, the company had expanded to Gauteng, and its operations there were fast exceeding his expectations. The question confronting him was multifaceted, given the high standards achieved by SA Metal in the Cape. Barnett knew that the company stood on the brink of growth from medium to large in size in an increasingly competitive national and international market. How were he and his brother – managing director Graham Barnett – to achieve the transition in size while, at the same time, retaining the company’s nature as a family business, its ethos of good customer service, its unique human capital formula, its ethical values and its financial success?

No.of pages: 21

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A few days before the JSE Limited (JSE) and the Bond Exchange of South Africa Limited (BESA) merged on 22 June 2009, Nicky Newton-King, deputy CEO of the JSE, –who had been tasked with leading the integration of the two organisations – reviewed what she had done so far and the plans she had put in place to ensure a smooth integration. A great deal of time and work had been invested in planning and organising the merger, and she did not want a misstep in the integration process to derail the entire merger. She wondered if she had done enough to ensure a smooth integration.

No.of pages: 25

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Matome Modipa, executive chairman and founder of the Sebata Group of technical engineering and management consultants, enjoyed coming to work. His offices in Midrand, near Johannesburg, had an open and friendly feel, and the pervading ethos reflected the African philosophies of ubuntu and letsema that he had worked hard to instil in the organisation. Sebata had enjoyed steady growth since its inception in 2006. Now, in October 2013, the company was on the cusp of further expansion, and Modipa wondered how he was going to keep these philosophies alive at Sebata.

No of Pages: 19

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Ever since she had started Umsinsi Health Care (Pty) Ltd in South Africa in November 2008, Amanda Wilde’s vision had been to place the company, which distributed medical devices, in a trust for all of her employees. When this happened, they would become full partners in the company. However, by August 2013, Wilde was still the sole guardian of the Umsinsi Partnership Trust. She had postponed transferring the trust to her employees until the business was financially stable. With financial stability achieved, Wilde was now concerned whether her employees were ready to take on the responsibilities that came with the benefits of being full partners.

No of pages: 22

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Vodacom Customer Care provided an extensive training programme for new call centre employees. It had also made an effort to ensure that the work environment at its various call centres was pleasant with modern amenities. Performance of call centre agents was measured against a detailed bonus calculator system. In October 2002 the number of calls handled by each call centre agent was added to the list of criteria against which performance of call centre agents was measured. This had prompted a change in the relative weighting of each of the factors that contributed to the final bonus calculation. Ibeth Toerien, executive director: customer care at Vodacom, and Lori Kasselman, Vodacom’s executive head: capacity building and development reflected on whether it had been worthwhile adding quantity of calls handled to the bonus calculator. They debated whether it achieved the desired balance between quantitative and qualitative measures.

No. Pages: 22 

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In October 2016, the management team of Women in Wine – South Africa’s first wine brand to be owned and controlled by black women – gathered to prepare for the annual meeting of company shareholders. Operating conditions locally and abroad over the preceding year had once again proved extremely challenging, and chief executive officer (CEO) Beverly Farmer felt the firm needed decisive action to improve its fortunes. Accordingly, she was going to present two possible courses of action to shareholders: focus resources on developing a more innovative marketing strategy for the company, or acquire a property to enable diversification into hospitality and farming ventures. Farmer wondered which option would be most effective in enabling Women in Wine to fulfil its central purpose: giving black women – particularly farm workers – a meaningful stake in a sector that had traditionally been controlled by white men.

Categories: Human Resources, BEE, Organisational Design & Development

No of pages: 27 pages

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