This cluster, displayed in Figure 4.33, had the most positive ratings across all the axes with an overall mean score of 5.10. The most positive ratings related to diversity, complexity and finance. The cluster had a weighting of 36.68%, which is the second heaviest weighting after cluster 1. This cluster forms a point of coherence with clusters 1 and 3 on the sustainability axis, representing a combined weighting of 77.08%. The view of this cluster seems to be disconnected from the sustainability maturity assessment, where ratings are substantially higher than the mean across all axes.
Figure 4.33: Cluster 5 mean scores
Inspecting the heatmap nodes in Figure 4.7 shows a similar pattern of emergence in the sustainability and complexity axes with warm colours spread across the top and central nodes in the cluster. The finance axis emerges with a similar pattern, except for the top right nodes which show cooler colours than the sustainability and complexity axes. The wellbeing and leadership axes show similar patterns of emergence with cooling of the nodes in the mid-right regions of the cluster.
The analysis focuses on the outlying demographic fields. There is a higher representation of junior management than in the overall sample, as can be seen in Figure 4.34.
Figure 4.34: Cluster 5 management level (%)
Education levels also differentiate this cluster. The education levels can be seen in Figure 4.35.
There is a higher representation of respondents from this cluster with a matric than in the overall sample. There is less representation of university graduates in this cluster. A more optimistic and less differentiated pattern of rating emerges with lower levels of education.
Figure 4.35: Cluster 5 level of education (%)
The age categories represented in Cluster 5 are indicated in Figure 4.36. Respondents in this cluster are more likely to be in the 18-24 age category, with a 7.02% higher representation than in the overall sample.
Figure 4.36: Cluster 5 age (%)
Respondents from this cluster are also more likely to be new to the organisation. The tenure of respondents in the cluster is displayed in Figure 4.37. The cluster has higher representation in both the <1 year and 1-2 years categories.
Figure 4.37: Cluster 5 tenure (%)
The cluster has a stronger representation from the Namibia business than the overall sample, as is displayed in Figure 4.38. The very positive view of this cluster is thus less evident when the group is viewed from outside the country.
Figure 4.38: Cluster 5 country (%)
The cluster has a higher representation from the branch network (67.96%) than the overall
<1 yr
1-2 yrs
3-5 yrs
>5 yrs
0 25 50 75 100
55.87 21.49
12.61 10.03
46.88 21.88
17.97 13.28
Cluster 5 (%) Overall (%)
The composition of this cluster per division is displayed in Figure 4.39. Note the very strong representation from the retail bank. There is a moderate level of representation from many divisions within the head office structure. The two unnamed cells in the bottom right of the figure are group strategy and marketing.
Figure 4.39: Cluster 5 divisions
This cluster has been named the “praise singers” as respondents from this cluster have very high ratings across all axes with subtle differentiation between axes. Praise singers have an important role in African societies - upholding the status of the chief through praise songs, providing critique on current affairs, and supporting a sense of membership of the chiefdom amongst the audience:
“In African oral tradition, it’s the praise poet who reminds his people about their history and heritage. He’s a living archive with a remarkably retentive memory who is expected to recall royal lineages, praise names and the nation’s defining moments” (Mathe, 2016, para. 2).
Praise singers have important social functions that bear similarities with the role of court jester in Medieval Europe (Opland & McAllister, 2010). The praise singer and jester are liminal figures who seek to “add disorder to order and so make a whole, to render possible, within the fixed bounds of what is permitted, an experience of what is not permitted” (Kerenyi inOpland &
McAllister, 2010, p. 165).
The conceptualisation of praise singer as court jester is a fruitful metaphor for the cluster as it provides a positive framing for this supportive position in a complex adaptive system, which has been carried around the world over many generations. Whilst this framing of the cluster might still be nascent given the young profile and representation at lower levels of
management, there is potential for this role to add value to sustainability.
In considering the naming of this cluster, “naïve optimists” was initially considered. An integral approach incorporates multiple perspectives rather than attempting to determine which view is
“correct”. This aligns with a complexity ontology which focuses on emergence through rich connections between agents in the system. The praise singer metaphor provides a positive framing of this cluster and a potential way in which this perspective can be further utilised in supporting the transition to a sustainable future.
4.3.13 Conclusion
The quantitative findings for case A have been presented. The application of self-organising maps was discussed and the resultant clusters were analysed. Five clusters were identified.
The most optimistic clusters (praise singers and guardians), which play an important role in stabilising a complex adaptive system, together comprised 76.22% of the weighting. A very optimistic majority runs the risk of inhibiting progress towards sustainability. Sustainability was shown to be emerging alongside finance with dual zones of coherence. The progress towards sustainability was affirmed by the more critical clusters (devil’s advocate and the resistance) which both rated sustainability as a relative strength.
In the context of a pluralist epistemology, it is important to allow for the interpretation of the data from multiple perspectives. The qualitative strand of the research sought to achieve this.
The chapter will now shift to examine the qualitative findings as a way of explaining and