Barriers to transformation within the south African banking sector

Abstract

The South African banking sector has experienced some progress in implementing employee transformation over the past two decades since the Employment Equity Act (EEA) was promulgated. The progress is somewhat evident in the junior, middle management and the placement of women but deteriorates with seniority, with a wide gap in the top three occupational levels within the banking sector. Despite legislation including the bank committed targets in the Financial Sector Charter, the banks have not met the prescribed targets and the progress in creating a diverse workforce across all occupational levels has been slow and uneven. The aim of this study was to identify the barriers that influence transformation implementation within the banking sector in South Africa, with the aim of gaining new insights into this important national agenda. Identifying the barriers, given the seemingly slow progress, could assist Human Resources practioners, managers and leaders in creating new strategies that will ensure a more accelerated transformation implementation process within the banking sector. An exploratory qualitative research method was adopted with the aim of identifying and gaining a deeper understanding into the barriers to transformation within the banking sector. Thirteen semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with Human Resource Executives, Executive Heads of Business units, Senior Managers, Middle and Junior Managers as well as Recruitment Managers within four of South Africa’s major banks. A thematic analysis was conducted to gain a deeper understanding of transformation barriers in the banking sector. The key findings of this study identified thirteen main barriers to transformation implementation within the South African banking sector. The barriers were linked to lack of leadership commitment, a ‘transformation resistant’ organisational culture, a lack of shared understanding and engagement on transformation, negative perceptions amongst employees, inconsistencies in Human Resources transformation implementation processes and an overall lack of coordination, integration and focus in the transformation implementation. Furthermore, the research culminated in a ‘Transformation Implementation Model’ that can be used by HR practioners to accelerate transformation implementation in the workplace.