The contemporary approach to change in Nedbank is focused on mechanistic processes with little reference to social systems that exist in organisations. The contemporary approach assumes that an organisation is linear in nature and as such, a reductionist approach is employed for organisational inquiry to address organisational structure, strategy and culture. This research will focus on employing a systems approach to organisational inquiry to elicit themes that leadership should be aware of, to effect change in a dynamic and complex environment. The argument presented is that organisations are about people that interrelate with each other to achieve organisational goals, and as such exhibit social phenomena that have important implications in defining an organisation's capability for effective change. Therefore, a reductionist approach to organisational inquiry is not desirable and may not be effective for real change. The research will draw on various concepts within the frameworks of systems thinking, complexity theory, knowledge management and dynamic capabilities to elicit themes to complement Nedbank's existing transformation process. The results provide recommendations on how management's contemporary role is required to transform in order to address the challenges of organisational change in the knowledge world.

Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.