The impact of organisational culture on corporate governance in public entities: The case of South African Revenue Service

Abstract

Background: The pillar and quality of good corporate governance in an organisation is its culture: such as the culture of inquiry, freedom of expression, sense of pride, and culture of healthy dissent. South African public entities, including the South African Revenue Service (SARS), have been confronted with numerous managerial and corporate performance challenges at some stage.
Objectives: The study aimed to critically examine the impact of corporate culture in state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and how it influences corporate governance, productivity, and profitability of the entity. SARS was chosen as the focus area of this study owing to the various corporate governance challenges it has faced over the years under different commissioners.
Method: This investigative study espoused largely the qualitative research approach, with some elements of the quantitative approach. Additionally, the use of a deductive approach chiefly helped the investigator to understand the research subject and eventually respond to the principal research questions.
Results: The data collection methods include relevant materials such as commissioned reports, peer-reviewed articles, and online news articles that have reported on the research questions. The study findings revealed that SARS encountered several challenges during this period due to various management missteps, ineffective leadership, and unethical leadership behaviours at the time.
Conclusion: This study concludes that there is a need for the clarification of roles between the board and the executives in the SOEs, in line with the understanding of the agency theory on corporate governance.
Contribution: This research study seeks to make theoretical and practical contributions to SOEs’ governance policies and practices.