• INSIGHT
Culture carriers are therefore those who embody your organisational culture and demonstrate your values , acting as messengers .
Unsplash | Riccardo Annandale
YOUR PEOPLE CAN MAKE – OR BREAK – YOUR MINE
By Arjen de Bruin , MD at OIM Consulting
You can set your mine ’ s organisational strategy and email it to every employee in your business . Add your company values to every office mug in the canteen , so your coffeeglugging workforce is sure to see it . Decide on your mission statement and emblazon it across a billboard big enough for all and sundry to see . However , if those who work for you don ’ t understand or buy into your prettily defined company purpose , your company culture is dead in the water .
Defining company culture One white paper that looked into the impact of organisational culture on gold mining activities in the Free State cited research from Wilson and Rosenfeld , ( 1997 : 229 ) which maintained that organisational culture was defined from two different perspectives . “ Firstly , organisation culture is the pattern of basic assumptions that a given group has invented , discovered or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration … such as stories , rituals , language and jargon …”
“ Secondly , organisational culture is also the way things are done in the organisation , such as the overall unique practices …, the beliefs and values shared by people in the organisation that govern the way people approach their work and interact with each other ; and a set of basic assumptions that worked so well before that they are regarded as valid assumptions within the organisation ( Robbins & Barnwell , 2002:377 ).”
The paper concluded that when both perspectives were taken into consideration , culture was the reflection of a collective of people who – through their experiences together in the daily work environment – established a picture of what the organisation was all about .
So , who are the people that need to understand and believe in what the company is about , to create the picture you want ? The very same people who will champion your company culture , allowing it to permeate every layer of the organisation . Your culture carriers .
Culture creators versus carriers A culture creator is usually a member of the senior leadership or executive team . They define the organisation ’ s purpose and – through consulting an array of stakeholders – derive a mission statement and company values which flow from that , thereby informing the company culture .
In a mining context , front-line leaders or supervisors are seldom involved in this stage of the process . However , where they play
62 • African Mining • January 2023 www . africanmining . co . za