Strategic management in the south african gold mining industry: A sibanye gold limited case

The South African gold mining industry dominated the global gold mining industry in the late 19th century, it is now considered to be in a declining phase. The unbundling of Gold Fields Ltd.'s deep level, narrow vein underground operations in South Africa to form Sibanye Gold Ltd. (Sibanye) is a good case since the organization is considered to be profitable and on a growth path. The main objective of this research project is to answer the following questions; Why is Sibanye considered to be profitable and on a growth path given the challenges facing the South African gold mining industry? How does the organization utilize strategic management as a tool to survive? This research investigation is achieved primarily through the use of structured questionnaires which investigates key factors in the organization's strategic management process. The organization's documentation is also used to supplement the questionnaire results. The research results established that Sibanye, as an organization, is performing satisfactorily regarding key factors in its strategic management process. These factors include the vision, mission, strategic goals, SWOT analysis (strategic formulation), corporate governance policies, financial support (strategic implementation), ongoing assessment of strategic initiatives, and identifying failure when strategic initiatives are failing (strategic evaluation). The research establishes consistency between information extracted from Sibanye's documentation and the research questionnaire's results. The study recommends that the organization should improve on factors such as organizational structure, human resource department and abandoning, adjusting or developing new strategies subsequent to evaluation of the initial ones.