Abstract:
This study explores how planning, leading and organising activities shaped the organisational
architecture of the nascent small restaurants that survived the first five years of operating in Durban in
South Africa. Twelve owners of nascent small restaurants in Durban were selected using purposive
sampling and interviewed to gather data. Themes of how planning, leading and organizing shaped the
components of the Mc Kinsey 7-S model in the restaurant were delineated using thematic analysis. The
study reveal that the organisational architecture of the nascent restaurant relied on emergent and
entrepreneurial planning in the creative use of staff and skills to exploit opportunities and contain
disruptions to service. Engaging employees to model the desired values but also using them as an
instrument to achieve specific goals depicted an ambidextrous style of leadership. Multiskilling of staff
enhanced resilience to operational and customer changes while the empowerment of employees was
undermined by trust deficit in the organisational architecture of the restaurant. Critical changes are
imperative to re-align the organisational architecture of the restaurant and ensure that it enhances
survival.
