Description

Diversity is inevitable in an increasingly globalised world. In the South African context, diversity and inclusion are a critical concern and is further complicated by the country’s history of apartheid. The government’s efforts focus on promoting social and economic equality through various legislative mandates including BBBEE. Leadership in Financial services organisations such as Banks, have a key role to play as large-scale employers to address key diversity and inclusion issues such as the lack of adequate representation in terms of race, gender, and disability at senior executive levels along with the gender pay gaps within the sector.
Despite the critical role of the leader in diversity and inclusion, limited research has been performed to gain an understanding of the perspectives and lived experiences of the leaders implementing BBBEE initiatives in corporate South Africa. This study intended to contribute to the reduction of this research gap by exploring the experiences of executive leadership tasked with the implementation of Affirmative Action as part of a BBBEE strategy within the South African banking industry. The focus was to examine how these leaders make sense of their experiences and how their experiences might add value to future BBBEE strategy implementations.
Guided by the objectives of this study, the researcher selected to apply a qualitative research approach with a phenomenological philosophy and interpretivist paradigm as it allowed for the gathering of a detailed, rich, and complex understanding of the phenomena under study. Semi-structured one on one interviews with the participants in senior leadership positions within the selected banking institution enabled the collection of meaningful data related to BBBEE related transformational change leadership. The findings of this study provide critical contributions to the study of transformational change leadership in South Africa by unearthing organisational barriers to effective transformational change leadership and the leadership skills required to navigate the required changes, providing a guide for organisations, existing and upcoming leaders as they lead diversity and inclusion within their organisations.