1. Problem Definition
1.1 Introduction
Strong leadership has been one of the definitive success factors determining the competitive advantage of businesses. One of the most researched antecedents to leading followers has been the construct of trust. Within the construct there were many research topics: the effectiveness of trust on performance and organisational behaviours, the process by which trust is developed, the role of trust in leadership styles such as transformational and servant leadership, and the effect of culture on trust, to name but a few. It is the last topic that this research proposal intends to explore, by analysing the effect of race on trust in Leadership at Sasol Limited, a South African petrochemical company which has nowadays outgrown its home-base to become a respected global player in the petrochemical industry.
Globalisation is a reality that faces every company such as Sasol today and brings with it the challenge of managing a diverse workforce. The challenges posed by the cultural diversity is even more acute for South African organisations considering a plethora of usually race-based cultures and considering the effects that past discrimination and inequalities still have on communities. It would be interesting to investigate the influence of cultural context on trust in leadership in the South African context particularly considering the variety of cultural backgrounds within the society, the political, social and economic imbalances which pose major challenges at the work place.
This report will gives a literature review on trust in its relationship to culture in section 2 followed by the research hypotheses in section 3. Context and the Exclusivity of the research is explained in section 4, followed by the delimitations in section 5. The research methodology is explained in section 6 and the data collection and proposed analysis is presented in section 7. Ethical considerations and limitations of the research are...