The role of participative communication towards a company's ascend to 'world class' status

M.Phil.This study aimed at indicating that participative communication plays an important role in ensuring that a company ascent to 'world-class' status. In order for a typical South African company to become 'world-class' it must overcome a number of hurdles namely: employees' attitudes in South African organisations; productivity and competitiveness; education, and training and development; absence of work ethics and values; the corpse shadow theory; crime; HIV/AIDS and emigration. The question of companies to become 'world-class' is imperative because of the phenomenon of globalisation. The globalisation is the state of affairs economically, politically and to a certain degree socially and scientifically in which the world has been reduced to a tonal 'global village'. The 'global village' is thus a 'global market place' in which South Africa found itself thrown into after 1994, after a long winter and cocoon of economic and political isolation of pre-1994 years. South African companies found that their contemporaries are afar in the fierce economic race. The 'global market' is a battlefield in which companies (locally and internationally) fight for acquisition of lion's share in the market, retention and attraction of skilful and talented workers. The worker suitable for the 'global labour market' simply move around the globe and so does money in billions of dollars. The level- of technology is high, states' borders are `torn' to allow free movement of knowledge, information, money and skilled workers and resources. To survive in this battlefield companies (countries) must be thus productive, profitable and competitive. The study shows South Africa as being typically sluggish: showing low ranking in terms of performance economically (productivity, profitability and competitiveness). To become productive the managers and employees must change from their confrontational attitudes of the 'them versus us', adopt a 'pentotal' employment relations mindset that take the customers and shareholders into account as stakeholders. The customers want to pay for service or product of value. Thus the role and place of core values in participative work culture is addressed in this study