A Conceptual Framework of Organisational Alignment to Improve South African Mining Companies

This study sets out to develop a framework of organisational alignment and to make recommendations to improve South African mining organisations, a study which has to date not being undertaken. A thorough review of literature and an extensive questionnaire development phase resulted in the conceptualisation and operationalisation of a multidimensional construct of organisational alignment. Data was collected from 286 managers from a selection of all the major South African mining companies in the commodity sector on their perceptions of the degree of organisational alignment as well as the enablers of organisational alignment. Applying structural equation modelling, five of the eleven organisational alignment enabling factors indicated a unique influence of practical importance on perceived organisational alignment. The key contribution of the developed multidimensional organisational alignment construct was, that it effectively incorporated a view on alignment that has to date not being at the forefront of mining organisation practices.