Employees’ perceptions of symbolic corporate identity elements and employer-employee relationships at Lonmin Platinum

Abstract

Apart from historical and contextual factors complicating the mining industry, Lonmin Platinum’smanagement of employee relationships was further complicated by its diverse workforce ofapproximately 20 000 employees consisting of literates, semi-literates and illiterates. In addition,the company comprised five business units, each with their own corporate identity. Within thiscontext it was expected that Lonmin’s relationship with its employees would take some strain.While the relationship between corporate image and stakeholder management has been debated,the impact of symbolic corporate identity elements on specific relationship dimensions has not yetbeen investigated and is addressed in this article by means of the following research question:What is the relationship between employees’ perceptions of symbolic corporate identity elementsand employer-employee relationships at Lonmin Platinum? This study indicated a relationship between employees’ perceptions of how effectively the company reached it objectives, specifically a safe working environment, a healthy working environment,socio-economic empowerment and accountability, and the quality of its employee relationships.