Abstract
M.Comm.
Everywhere in the world today, we read about enterprises undergoing rapid change.
Business organisations are being challenged by aspects of both the external and internal
environments. The external considerations include markets, competitors, macroeconomic
factors, industry factors and other related factors. The internal pressures are
demands for more flexible, family-friendly employment practices, demands for
consultation and information, as well as concern for training and quality standards
[Thomas 1994: 202].
In South Africa, the political change that was brought about by the 1994 elections
necessitated the repositioning of organisations. The repositioning of businesses and
other organisations should be seen as part of the reconstruction of the economy which is
currently trapped in a deep-seated structural crisis (RDP,1994:75).
The economic and political framework within which the economy was structured
encouraged regional disparities ensuring migratory labour supply from the former
homelands to cities and towns. Enforced segregation and industrial decentralisation
were instruments that ensured that the black population remained honed in the
"homelands" where per capita incomes were less than a quarter of the national average
(RDP,1994). The above impacted negatively upon the development of blacks as
managers, in that they were in terms of apartheid ethos not supposed to hold managerial
position in urban areas, unless if they qualified in terms of the Group Areas Act [Black
Urban Areas Act No.25 of 1945].
The above position was aggravated by the deliberate neglect to train blacks which
ensured that they remained disempowered and inferior to their white counterparts. The
Group Areas Act on the other hand ensured that black's entry into urban areas was
regulated notwithstanding the fact that jobs were scarce in the 'homelands'. Though
South Africa has entered into the new era in political terms, the South African business
structures have not changed and that disparities that existed in the past are still a
features of the present. Though foreign markets are now opened and new opportunities
offered to South Africans, the economy is still characterised by lack of skilled manpower
and in particular its leadership is not representative of the composition of the South
African society.