Doctoral Degrees (History)

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Browsing Doctoral Degrees (History) by Author "Beukes, Wynand"

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    Van Afrikanerkultuur tot korporatief : die geskiedenis van Sanlam se hoofkantoor-personeelkorps 1918 – 2008
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2017-12) Beukes, Wynand; Verhoef, G.; Ehlers, Anton; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of History.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The South African company Sanlam was founded in 1918 as a direct result of the growth of Afrikaner nationalism. An objective with the establishment of Sanlam as a life insurance company was the settlement of Afrikaners in the South African economy and thereby their economic upliftment. From the beginning, the company was known principally as an Afrikaans institution focussing on Afrikaner interests. The company was aiming at the settling of itself as a South African establishment rendering a service to the entire South African community. The building-blocks of Afrikaner nationalism – the Afrikaans language, the uplifting of Afrikaners, the accentuation of their history and Christian Protestantism – were openly allowed to flourish in the company. Black people were staff members from the start, but were directly affected later by legislation and views of segregation and apartheid, a system dividing South Africans on a racial basis especially after the National Party (NP) rose to office in 1948. Separate accommodation, recreational and dining facilities were established in the company. The white staff members’ organisational culture was intensely affected by elements of industrial paternalism, under which housing and organised culture and sport, among other things, were provided by the company. This form of paternalism created an ideal environment for the development of loyalty to the company, conveyed by the expression “Sanlam spirit”. This company alliance was not sufficient enough to detach staff members from non-ideological exogenous events. They witnessed technological development from the typewriter to the most modern computer applications and experienced the preferences and disapprovals for clothing and the smoking habit, for instance. The position of women in the company was also directly influenced by external factors. In tandem with the rest of the world, they were marginalised too. In the seventies, the tables started turning for them. In the same decade, political developments began to influence staff members intensively. They became part of the militarisation of the South African white community against the increasing rise of militant black nationalism. Political reforms led to the crumbling of the building-blocks of Afrikaner nationalism. The transition in South Africa from a white minority government to a black majority government under the African National Congress (ANC) in 1994 affected the staff profoundly. The company had to transform to meet the political demands of the new government. It was compelled to appoint more black staff members. Simultaneously, the company was forced to reconstruct to keep up with economic changes. Sanlam changed from a mutual life office to a corporative financial services institution. In 2008, nine decades after its establishment, it was transformed into a true new South African company when black staff members emerged as the majority for the first time. The continuous changes during 90 years were a reflection of exogenous events in the Afrikaner community in particular and in South Africa and the rest of the world in general. This all influenced the establishment and settlement of and the changes to the company’s organisational culture.