Abstract
The aim of the study was to determine the nature of the alignment between people management effectiveness, business strategy and organisational performance within the banking and insurance sector in South Africa. From the field study, it was evident that the majorities of the participating companies fell short of people management best practices and were therefore unable to support their business strategies, which were in line with best practices. The organisational performance data was insufficient to determine the nature of the alignment between organizational performance, people management, and business strategy. The South African banking and insurance industry needs to realign their people management component to support the appropriate business strategy and to produce a desired level of organisational performance. A limitation of this study was the small sample size, which may have had some effect on the interpretation of the results. However, the sample represents a significant proportion of the South African banking and insurance sector. Although the magnitude and the direction of the relationships are still unclear, the opportunity exists for further longitudinal research.