Abstract
M.Phil. (Engineering Management)
The South African gold mining industry dominated the global gold mining industry for more than 100 years since the late19th century. The industry has however faced significant challenges since its inception and has undergone a sequence of maturity stages and it is now considered to be in a declining phase. By 2012, South Africa was no longer the world’s largest gold producer, and of the seven great South African gold mining organizations, Anglo-American had abandoned gold, other organizations were swallowed by mergers, take over’s and attrition. Sibanye Gold Ltd (Sibanye) is one of the new entrants in this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous South African gold mining environment and it is considered to be profitable and on a growth path.
The main objective of this research paper is to understand how Sibanye uses strategic management (strategic formulation, implementation and control) to gain a competitive advantage in the South African gold mining industry. The research objective is achieved by answering two research questions: 1. Why is Sibanye considered to be profitable and on a growth path given the challenges facing the South African gold mining industry. 2. How is the organization utilizing strategic management as a tool to survive?
This study utilizes a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods to understand how Sibanye uses strategic management to survive. Adopting a mixed method research strategy may represent a strategy on its own or it may be incorporated within another research strategy as in the case of adopting a case study design. Mixed methods research also mean working with different types of data. This is achieved by presenting and analyzing results of structured questionnaires which utilizes Sibanye’s 40 employees at management level as the sample. The results of the structured questionnaires are compared with Sibanye’s archival documentation and participant observation to validate the research. The motivation for choosing this research design is elaborated in chapter 3.
From the research data it can be concluded that Sibanye is performing satisfactorily regarding a variety of factors in its strategic management process;
Strategic formulation: This research project established that Sibanye’s vision, mission, strategic goals and its SWOT analysis process are in line with recommendations cited in the literature review...