Gautrain: contextualising strategic leadership of African rapid rail

Abstract

Learning Outcomes

After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following: • Analyse the aspects of strategic leadership and evaluate effectiveness of the leadership in the case study. • Identify stakeholders in a large-scale project and differentiate between their needs and sources of power. • Establish what behavioural mechanisms can be used by leaders to gain support from stakeholders with seemingly divergent pro-poor and pro-growth development orientations for expansion in an emerging market context. • Generate recommendations to communicate the benefits of expansion plans.

Case overview/synopsis

On November 8, 2019, Jack van der Merwe, the chief executive officer of the public rapid rail organisation, Gautrain Management Agency (GMA), was considering how to influence stakeholders to support the pace of the expansion planning phase, without alienating the surrounding communities and balancing the various and sometimes opposing stakeholder interests. The case highlights the background to this dilemma in offering the financial background of the Gauteng province and the evolution of the Gautrain project in the context of an emerging market country characterised by institutions at different development levels and how the unique characteristics of the protagonist could influence stakeholder orientations. The case illustrates how the Gautrain is at the centre of a complex transport conflagration in the South African transport ecosystem. Specific stakeholders and their needs are exposed in the case to enable students to analyse their several levels of influence on the project and proposed expansion. The differences between pro-poor and pro-growth development orientations are also highlighted in this case as input to describe the dilemma Van der Merwe faced in his influencing role in this particular South African context. Students will gain insight into how to manage the tensions between pro-poor and pro-growth orientations.

Complexity academic level

The case is suitable for a graduate-level course on strategy; organisational behaviour; or leadership. The case is also suitable for a post-graduate-level course on an MBA or MPhil program on strategy and leadership.

Supplementary materials

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

Subject code

CSS 7: Management Science.

Citation

Mthombeni, M., Scheepers, C.B. and Mgedezi, V. (2022), "Gautrain: contextualising strategic leadership of African rapid rail", , Vol. 12 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/EEMCS-01-2021-0011