CONSTRUCTING THE MEDUPI

POWER STATION CASE STUDY

NAME : KARTHIKEYAN SHANIKA DILINI

STUDENT ID : 1261192002

COURSE NAME : ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

COURSE CODE : MBA5093

SUBMITTED TO : DR ROSSILAH JAMIL

WHAT ELSE CAN VERMAAK DO TO ACCELERATE AND INSTITUTIONALIZE
CHANGE IN MEDUPI ?

Case summary
Medupi in Limpopo dry bush veld was the first project of the foundation built in South Africa
for 20 years load and it would be the largest dry cooling of coal in the world . It was developed
by Eskom, which generates 90 percent of power in South Africa, at an estimated cost of R125
billion. Although the global concerns about green energy, coal can be considered as the most
popular fuel central South Africa, due to the vast resources of 224 million tonnes per year in
the country. The ability to offer new Medupi was insufficient for the demand. Regular and
national release asked all businesses to turn off non-essential lighting and equipment, even
during the day due to lack of capacity affected the whole country in 2007 and 2008. At the
same time, handling a program project involving different providers offer different packages
at different times and need to accommodate multiple interfaces in the design and
implementation of PART job Site are not considered as easy tasks. As the project is in large
scale of the project and highly specialized engineering required for the different sectors of the
construction of Medupi, three companies have joined forces to combat child labour, namely,
Murray & Roberts, Aveng and Concor. The company “ Murray & Roberts” appointed Coenie
Vermaak as project manager at Medupi and he is the Project Director at age 34, the youngest
of the group. Sooner, the directors of the joint venture quickly realized that it would be “a
project like no other.” Different ways to work three integrated companies need more
coordination. Employees of three joint venture organizations have job descriptions were
different charges, had several advantages, structures, processes and cultures. The uniqueness
of the project provided an opportunity to be pioneers in the construction industry and to
"reconstruct construction" with a different way of working on a construction site. Therefore,
there must be a culture of employee engagement and alignment.
The initiatives at Medupi can be considered as only organizational development not
transformation. Organizational development refers to incremental planned change. Whereas,
organizational transformation is a reactive, dramatic response to external pressure
organizational development is a gradual calibrated change that has been planned by
management. Therefore, Medupi management has planned the change. There is a clear purpose
and direction, the matrix structure for the change has been planned, the climate in the
organization has been made inspiring, employees have been empowered, well-improved

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performance management has been put in place, and communications and involvement have
been given greater importance.
The leadership at Medupi had been successful in achieving its vision to reconstruct
construction. The teams that achieved high scores on their Invocom sessions and also achieved
high production targets, safety scores, and achieved cost and quality objectives. Also, those
teams that got high IPM scores showed improved performance. The target operational results
in terms of safety, production, and quality were achieved. Leadership was able to achieve the
targets at Medupi. There was improvement in weekly labour efficiencies, in weekly plant
utilization, and in actual production. Therefore, the leadership at Medupi in achieving its vision
to "reconstruct construction was successful.

How the project manager Vermaak could accelerate the progress and alignment
improved with other contractors on the Medupi construction site?
The interfaces with subcontractors and contractors at the Medupi site were improved. In
addition, Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment as required by the South Africa
Employment Equity Act of 1998 was prescribed. The contractors on site were compelled to
comply. If the contractors fulfilled all the requirements, they would become the preferred
contractor in the industry. Alignment was further improved with contractors through monthly
audits. These audits ascertained if the sub-contractors complied legally with the construction
requirements.

As the project director, how would Vermaak ensure that the changes are institutionalized
at Medupi and what else he can do in this scenario?
As the project director, Vermaak needs to ensure that changes are institutionalized at Medupi
by ensuring that there was a sustainable organization. He can ensure that there is a culture of
high employee engagement and alignment. In this scenario, Vermaak can do the following
additional steps to accelerate and institutionalize the change at Medupi.
• Establish global benchmarks in operational excellence and increase stakeholder
satisfaction.
• Select the exact aspects of change that he wants to sustain.
• Train and motivate the employees to adopt continuous improvement.
• Inform the employees of the success of change at Medupi. The results will be
communicated.

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• Reward those employees and teams that have adopted the change.
• Make the employees aware of the expectations.
• Motivate them to adopt the change and continue with it.
• Provide the employees at Medupi the training required for skills and abilities to adopt
the change.
• Provide them opportunities to try new behavior, skills, and abilities.
• Create a new culture that will remain after he leave the organization.
• Finally, set up a system that provides feedback to the employees so that improvement
is sustained.

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