Towards the development of an organisation development model for the mining industry

D. Litt. et Phil.(Leadership in Performance and Change)The aim of this study was to develop an organisation development model to support organisational change and transformation in a dynamic, continuously changing business environment, specifically for the mining industry in South Africa. Literature revealed that there is a tendency to employ universal and generic models to challenges of organisational change, whereas successful 00 needs a situation specific or contextualised approach. The field of OD reflects a paucity of empirical research, necessitating a greater research competence and more in-depth, robust empirical 00 studies to answer to 'contemporary contextual and environmental challenges. A further call is voiced towards OD to resolve organisational change challenges from a systemic perspective, which has been a central tenet of the field. A number of research participants from a South African company that has been implementing organisational change and transformation interventions in the mining sector, were selected by means of purposive sampling. A modernist qualitative approach with the case study as research strategy was utilised during the development of the model. Various data collection techniques were utilised with grounded theory as a data analysis technique to explore and systematically develop the concepts and categories of the model. Atlas.ti, together with manual coding procedures were utilised to systematically organise and analyse the rich descriptive data. Credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability were ensured by following the guidelines presented in the literature. In the literature study, the sample's narrative was critically contrasted against the established scientific knowledge base of OD, considering specifically taxonomies, models and theories related to the emergent OD model. The resulting model deviates from the established perspectives on OD, in that it reflects a hybrid of several fields of study endeavour. The latter is consistent with a business practice perspective that integrates and deal with a single application domain, compared to a science-informed perspective which conducts research largely within defined (and confined) disciplinary boundaries. The OD model has implications for the mining industry in South Africa, and the development of grounded theory should facilitate the application thereof in future research