ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION AND WORKPLACE DIVERSITY IN SOUTH AFRICA

Abstract

This paper attempts to look at organizational transformation and workplace diversity in South Africa. The subject matter is cardinal to a South African business dynamic and particularly in a period of transition in democratic South Africa. Planned change can be of two general types: Organization Development (OD) and Organization Transformation (OT). The latter, which is the focus of this paper, is described as the cutting edge of planned change and is called “secondgeneration OD” (French, Bell & Zawacki, 2005). It is a relatively new field and literature is limited in this area. Hence, it is ill-defined and very experimental, itself rapidly changing. The paper does not pretend to capture all the issues that encompass this important and challenging field of study, but attempts to show that organizational transformation and workplace diversity are important issues and variables in workplace diversity in a rapidly changing South Africa.