Managing Contestation in Organizational Culture: Lessons Learned from the South African Mining Pidgin Fanagalo

This article scrutinizes the idea of organizational culture being built only on that which is shared by members of an organization. In contexts of acute diversity, contestation should be expected as organization-wide shared meaning is not always attainable. A collective contestation around the elements of an organization’s culture can be just as much a feature of culture as shared meaning is. To unpack this stance, this article uses the case of Fanagalo—an industrial pidgin of the mining industry of South Africa—as contested organizational culture element. By means of in-depth qualitative interviews, the article bolsters discussions in organizational culture literature by offering four specific issues to consider when managing contestation in diverse contexts. These issues revolve around the locus of power in organizational culture; the focus of management strategies; using cultural elements as levers for change; and the continued nature of collective contestation.