The Strait of Hormuz is not only in Iran: It may be in your own organisation

By Dr Philimon Chitagu (PhD)

When the world hears the words Strait of Hormuz, the immediate image is a narrow and strategically important waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
Its importance lies not simply in its geography, but in what happens when a narrow passage controls the movement of something critical.

The Strait of Hormuz is therefore more than a geographical location. It is a powerful metaphor for understanding organisations.

Every organisation has its own “Strait of Hormuz”, those narrow points through which information, decisions, resources, relationships, talent and opportunities must pass.
When these organisational passages become blocked, controlled by a few individuals, poisoned by mistrust or restricted by bureaucracy, the entire organisation can experience disruption.

The organisational Strait of Hormuz may not be located in Iran.

It may be sitting in your boardroom, your executive team, your Human Resources department, your finance department, your WhatsApp group, your middle-management layer, or even in the relationship between a manager and an employee.

The challenge is therefore not merely to identify external threats. Leaders must have the courage to examine the internal chokepoints that prevent people from working together.

This is where the Mhofu Bonding Culture Model (MBCM) becomes relevant.

Understanding the Organisational Strait of Hormuz

A chokepoint is a place where the free movement of something important becomes vulnerable because movement is concentrated through a limited passage.

In an organisation, chokepoints can take many forms:

* Information controlled by one person or department.
* Decisions delayed by unnecessary hierarchy.
* Senior leaders who are inaccessible to employees.
* Departments that compete rather than collaborate.
* Employees who are afraid to speak honestly.
* Managers who create dependency instead of developing people.
* Favouritism that destroys trust.
* Organisational politics that determine who gets heard.
* Poor communication that creates rumours and uncertainty.
* Critical knowledge concentrated in a few employees.
* Conflict that is allowed to remain unresolved.
* Policies that exist on paper but are not reflected in leadership behaviour.

These are organisational chokepoints.

The organisation may appear to be functioning. Meetings are held. Reports are produced. Targets are circulated. Performance reviews are completed.

Yet underneath the formal structure, the flow is restricted.

People stop sharing information.

Employees stop taking risks.

Managers protect themselves.

Departments protect their territory.

Leaders receive filtered information.

Talented people begin looking elsewhere.

Eventually, organisational performance becomes the casualty.

The most dangerous chokepoint Is often invisible

The physical Strait of Hormuz can be seen on a map.

The organisational Strait of Hormuz cannot.

It exists in relationships.

This is why organisational culture matters.

A company can have excellent technology, sophisticated systems, impressive offices and well-designed policies, but still suffer from a dysfunctional culture.

Dr Chitagu’s Mhofu Bonding Culture Model approaches this problem from a relational perspective. The model argues that organisational performance is influenced by the quality of bonding systems among employees, leaders, teams and stakeholders.

The critical question therefore becomes:

What happens when the relationships through which organisational value must flow become blocked?

That is the organisational Strait of Hormuz.

The Mhofu Bonding Culture Model: Reopening the passage

The Mhofu Bonding Culture Model provides a culturally grounded way of thinking about organisational relationships.

The model places emphasis on trust, belonging, mutual respect, collective responsibility, relational accountability and shared purpose.

These principles provide an important antidote to organisational chokepoints.

Trust: Removing the fear barrier

Where trust is absent, information becomes political.

Employees ask:

“Who can I trust?”

“Will this information be used against me?”

“Can I tell my manager the truth?”

“Will speaking up damage my career?”

Once people begin withholding information, the organisation’s information flow becomes restricted.

Trust opens the passage.

A leader who creates psychological and relational safety enables people to communicate problems before they become crises.

Trust does not mean that leaders become soft.

Trust means people can tell the truth without fear of unnecessary punishment.

Belonging: Making people part of the journey

An employee who feels like an outsider will rarely demonstrate the same level of commitment as someone who feels genuinely connected to the organisation.

Belonging answers a fundamental human question:

“Do I matter here?”

MBCM places belonging at the centre of organisational bonding because employees who feel accepted and valued are more likely to contribute discretionary effort and remain committed during difficult periods.

When belonging is weak, organisations develop internal borders.

Finance versus sales.

Management versus employees.

Head office versus branches.

Old employees versus new employees.

Permanent employees versus contract workers.

These invisible borders create multiple Straits of Hormuz.

Mutual Respect: Removing organisational territorialism

One of the greatest dangers in organisations is territorial behaviour.

Departments begin to behave as if they own the organisation.

“This is my department.”

“That is not our responsibility.”

“We cannot help them.”

“Let them solve their own problem.”

Such thinking creates organisational fragmentation.

Mhofu bonding requires leaders to move people from territorial ownership to collective responsibility.

The organisation is not a collection of competing departments.

It is one system.

The customer does not experience Finance, Human Resources, Sales and Operations separately.

The customer experiences the organisation.

Collective responsibility: From “My Job” to “Our Purpose”

The organisational Strait of Hormuz becomes particularly dangerous when people focus exclusively on their individual key performance indicators.

A department can achieve its target while the organisation fails.

A manager can protect his or her budget while the customer suffers.

An employee can comply with a procedure while a business opportunity disappears.

MBCM challenges this fragmented approach by emphasising collective responsibility.

The question changes from:

“Did I do my job?”

to:

“Did we achieve our purpose?”

That is a profound cultural shift.

Relational Accountability: Holding People Responsible Without Destroying Relationships

Accountability is essential.

But accountability without relationships can become punishment.

Relationships without accountability can become complacency.

The answer is relational accountability.

Leaders must be able to challenge poor performance while preserving dignity.

They must be able to confront destructive behaviour without humiliating people.

They must be able to say:

“This behaviour is unacceptable, but you are still a valued member of this organisation and we want you to succeed.”

This distinction is fundamental.

A culture of fear may produce compliance.

A culture of bonding can produce commitment.

Shared Purpose: Giving Everyone a Reason to Cross the Strait

People will endure difficult circumstances when they understand what they are working toward.

Shared purpose connects individual contribution to organisational meaning.

It answers:

Why are we here?

Who are we serving?

What are we trying to build?

What do we want to be remembered for?

Without shared purpose, organisational energy becomes fragmented.

With shared purpose, different functions can move in the same direction.

The Executive Team Can Become the Biggest Chokepoint

One of the most uncomfortable truths in organisational transformation is that the problem may not be “the employees.”

Sometimes the executive team is the chokepoint.

If executives do not trust one another, the rest of the organisation will eventually feel it.

If executives compete for power, departments will compete for influence.

If executives withhold information, employees will learn to protect information.

If executives blame others, a blame culture will spread.

If executives demonstrate respect, collaboration and accountability, these behaviours can cascade throughout the organisation.

Culture flows downward through leadership behaviour.

Therefore, the first question leaders should ask is not:

“Why are our employees disengaged?”

It should be:

“What are we, as leaders, doing that makes engagement difficult?”

Diagnosing Your Organisational Strait of Hormuz

Every organisation should periodically ask:

. Where does information get stuck?
. Where do decisions get delayed?
. Where are employees afraid to speak?
. Which individuals have become organisational bottlenecks?
. Which departments do not trust one another?
. Where does organisational politics override business logic?
. Where is knowledge concentrated in one person?
. Which conflicts have been allowed to become permanent?
. Where have leaders lost credibility?
. Where do our stated values differ from our actual behaviour?

These questions expose the hidden chokepoints.

From chokepoints to bonding points

The purpose of MBCM is not simply to identify what is broken.

It is to rebuild the relationships that enable the organisation to function.

Every chokepoint can potentially become a bonding point.

Mistrust can become trust.

Isolation can become belonging.

Competition can become collaboration.

Blame can become accountability.

Territorialism can become collective responsibility.

Fear can become psychological safety.

Fragmentation can become shared purpose.

This is the transformational opportunity.

The Leader’s Role: Become the Bridge

Leadership is often described as directing people.

But in complex organisations, leadership is also about connecting people.

The leader becomes a bridge between:

* strategy and execution;
* executives and employees;
* departments and departments;
* customers and internal teams;
* performance and people;
* accountability and compassion;
* technology and human connection.

This relational role is particularly important in an African organisational context, where culturally grounded approaches to leadership can provide alternatives to simply importing management frameworks developed in different environments. Chitagu has argued for adapting rather than merely “cutting and pasting” external frameworks into African organisational contexts.

The Mhofu lesson

The Mhofu symbolism provides a powerful way of understanding collective survival.

In Chitagu’s conceptualisation, the Mhofu represents strength, unity, awareness, resilience and collective survival.

The lesson for organisations is simple:

No organisation survives sustainably through isolated individuals.

People need one another.

Leaders need employees.

Departments need other departments.

Organisations need customers, suppliers, communities and stakeholders.

The stronger the bonds, the greater the capacity to withstand disruption.

Conclusion: Find your Strait before it finds you

The global attention given to the Strait of Hormuz reminds us of the enormous consequences that can arise when a critical passage becomes vulnerable.

But leaders should look beyond geopolitics.

They should look inward.

Where is our Strait of Hormuz?

Is it the CEO who approves everything?

The manager who controls all information?

The department that refuses to cooperate?

The employee who possesses critical institutional knowledge but has become disengaged?

The executive team that does not trust one another?

The organisational culture where people are afraid to challenge the boss?

Or perhaps the greatest chokepoint is the absence of trust itself.

The Mhofu Bonding Culture Model provides a different way forward: build organisations in which people are connected by trust, belonging, mutual respect, collective responsibility, relational accountability and shared purpose.

The objective is not merely to remove obstacles.

It is to create an organisation in which the flow of human potential is not unnecessarily restricted.

Because an organisation does not become resilient merely because it has strong systems.

It becomes resilient when its people can move together.

And perhaps the most important leadership question of all is therefore:

If the Strait of Hormuz is a chokepoint in global trade, what is the chokepoint in your organisation, and what are you doing to open it?

The Strait of Hormuz may be thousands of kilometres away. Your organisational Strait of Hormuz may be sitting right next to you.

Find it. Face it. Bond the organisation. Reopen the flow.

Dr. Chitagu is a seasoned Human Resources and Leadership Development expert with extensive experience in organisational transformation, leadership coaching, and strategic human capital management. He has served in senior executive HR roles, including Human Resources and Administration Director at Schweppes Zimbabwe Limited. He is also an Executive and Team Coach, Leadership Mentor, Author, Keynote Speaker, and Organisational Development Specialist. Dr. Chitagu holds a PhD in Leadership Transformation Through Bonding Culture, has contributed significantly to leadership and HR discourse across Africa through publications, coaching, conference presentations, and advisory roles.