will assignment

WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING PORTFOLIO

NKULULEKO KHUMALOMOMENTUM

12/10/2015

2015

WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING PORTFOLIOUNDERSTANDING WORK TEAMS

DISCOVERING THE WORLD OF WORK

WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING PORTFOLIO 2015

Introduction

This is an introduction to the company that I Nkululeko Khumalo 201239780 conducted the work integrated learning programme in. The name of the company is Momentum a division of MMI group limited, an authorised financial services and credit provider. Their Human Resources is based in their head office in Pretoria, centurion- however all the functions of Human Resources Management relating to understanding work teams were observed and encrypted.

Momentum was established in 1966 and has grown organically. Through strategic acquisitions and mergers, the company became known as Momentum in 1973 when Momentum Assurance Corporation was acquired.

Rand Merchant Bank Holdings (RMBH) was established in 1987, creating Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Momentums growth escalated when RMBH took over Sankorp’s interest in Momentum life in 1992, and RBM became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Momentum life, which in turn became a subsidiary of RMBH.

Anglo American merged their financial services interests with RMBH in April 1998. The new holding company, FirstRand Limited, became the largest financial services company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) at the time. As part of the transaction, Momentum merged with Southern Life. The creation of FirstRand, along with Momentums merger with Sage in 2005 are two of the milestones that contributed to making momentum one of South Africa’s leading insurance and assert management providers.

In December 2010, Momentum and Metropolitan Holdings merged to form the listed entity MMI Holdings. As part of the MMI Holdings Group, Momentum continues to offer superior financial services in the advice, insurance, investments and health areas; contributing to the financial wellness journey of each of our clients.

The most suitable and best mentors from the Momentum company financial services provider were, Mr Methodius Mavuso- Financial management assistant and Consultant and Mr Greg saulter Client services consultant.

UNDERSTANDING WORK TEAMS[Type text] Page 1


THEORETICAL EVALUATION: UNDERSTANDING WORK TEAMS

UNDERSTANDING WORK TEAMS

Learning outcome 1: understanding the concept of work teams;

Assessment Criteria 1: Define work teams and explain the factors that influence it.

WORK TEAMS (Definition)

Are groups whose members work intensely on a specific common goal using their positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability- also their complementary skills.

A positive energy is that which is generated through coordinated efforts and results in a level of performance is greater than the sum of those individual inputs.

It involves a formal system of employee involvement, direct participation and a high degree of control.

Teams consists; of employees from diverse managerial and professional backgrounds working for a specific period of time on certain projects.

The benefits of work teams

Improved organisational performance Innovative solutions Improves quality, productivity & customer service

The employee benefits

Quality of work life Reduces stress Work satisfaction and less use of employee programmes



FACTORS THAT TEND TO INFLUENCE WORK TEAMS

Focusing on objectives

According to rise university web services, a team is driven by a common goal, in order to have an effective team that common goal needs to be spelled out in advance and understood by team members.

It is also important for a team to focus on the objective it has as a team.

Compensation

A team works well when each member to the team has a clear understanding of their reward for the efforts employed, it is always advisable to any business to formally draw up a compensation plan before establishing any team.

It is always better to remove compensation as an obstacle to effective team work

Communication

Communication between team members and communication from management to the team, encouraging open communication is vital.

Dealing with conflict

Conflicts tend to throw a team off its focus, getting it away from its objectives and goals- by learning to deal with conflict immediately a team can remain effective at all times.

Different personalities

As a team consists of different persons each as a team member belong to different cultures and come from different backgrounds, it is always going to be a factor that needs to be set aside and dealt with out of team engagement schedules.

Assessment Criteria 2: Discuss the differences between groups and teams



Comparing work groups and work teams

WORK GROUPS WORK TEAMS

Share information -goal- Collective performanceNeutral (sometimes negative) -synergy- positiveIndividual -accountability- individual and mutualrandom and varied -skills-

complementary

Work teams do differ from work groups and have their own unique traits. Work groups interact primarily to share information and to make decisions to help each member do his or her job more efficiently and effectively.

There is no need or opportunity for work groups to engage in collective work that requires joint effort.

On the other hand work teams are groups whose members work intensely on a specific, common goal using their positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability, and complementary skills. Managers are looking for that positive synergy that will help the organisation improve its performance.

These descriptions should help clarify why so many organisations have restructured work processes around teams.

LEARNING OUTCOME 2: Understanding different types of teams

Assessment criteria 2.1

Explaining the different types of work teams;

SELF DIRECTED WORK TEAMS

A type of work team that operates without a manager and is responsible for a complete work process or segment :



The team involves all of the employees in a specific area or those working on a specific product or process.The size of the team is unlimited but is usually made up of 12-15 employees who perform highly integrated and interdependent jobs. Work teams make decisions that would generally be made by a supervisor or any foreperson to management. Typically these tasks involve planning, scheduling work, assigning tasks to former members and working with suppliers and customers.

CROSS- FUNCTIONAL TEAMS

A work team composed of individuals from various specialities

Might be a team made up of employees from production, planning, equipment, design engineering and information systems to automate.These are teams made up of employees from about the same hierarchal level but from different work areas who come together to accomplish a task.The improvement of decision making and management for economic development in South Africa, integrating the input of all the different subjects into one project.It also provides a basis for people from diverse areas within the organisation to share or exchange information. In return they possess the quality to develop new ideas and solve problems and coordinate complex projectsHowever building such a team takes time and building trust on people from diverse ethnic groups who have their own perspective is a lot of time and hard work.

VIRTUAL TEAMS

A type of work team that uses technology to link physically dispersed members in order to achieve a common goal

These team members report directly to a manager who works 500km away from them.



Virtual teams allow people to collaborate online using a wide range network.They make use of computer technology to tie together physically disposed members in order to archive a common goal.Virtual teams are however more task-orientated in that they exchange less social emotional information.Virtual teams are characterised by certain amount of randomness chaos and ad-hoc decision making.Team progress is monitored closely so the team members do not lose sight of goals, in essence no team member is unavailable or disappears since the efforts and products of the virtual teams are publicised thought the organisation.

PROBLEM SOLVING TEAMS

A team from the same department or functional area that’s involved in efforts to improve work activities or to solve specific problems

These are the 5-12 hourly employees who meet on a regular basis of each week to, who are from the same department and they meet to discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency and the work environment.With this type of structure members share ideas or offer suggestions on how work processes and methods can be improved and they rarely or slightly have the authority to unilaterally implement any of their suggested actions.IT is said that one of the most widely implemented and practiced applications of problem solving teams during the 1980s was quality circles.

These are work teams of 8-10 employees and supervisors who have a shared area of responsibility and meet regularly to discuss their quality problems, recommend solutions and take corrective actions.THE FOLLOWING ARE PREREQUISITES FOR THE SUCCESS OF PROBLEM-SOLVING TEAMS.

Management must give meaningful and visible support to the team.



Teams need to be part of an on-going total approach to improvement.

All stakeholders must be involved; and Adequate training needs to be an on-going process.

LEARNING OUTCOME 3: UNDERSTANDING HOW TO CREATE EFFECTIVE TEAMS

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA 4&5: THE KEY ASPECTS OF CREATING EFFECTIVE TEAM AND HOW EFFECTIVE TEAMS ARE COMPOSED

In evaluation there seems to be four contextual factors that appear to be most significantly related to team performance.

These factors include adequate resources, leadership and structure, a climate of trust, and performance evaluation and reward systems.

As part of the larger organisation system, a team relies on resources outside the group to sustain it.

If it doesn’t have adequate resources than the team’s ability to perform its job effectively is reduced, this factor appears to be so important to team performance that one research study concluded that effective work teams must have support from the organisation.

Resources can include timely information, proper equipment, encouragement, adequate staffing, and administrative assistance.

If a team can’t agree on who is to do what or ensure that all members contribute equally in sharing the work load, it won’t function properly. Agreeing on the specifics of work and how all the team members’ individual skills fit together requires team leadership and structure; this aspect can come from the organisation or from the team itself.

Members of effective teams trust each other. It facilitates cooperation, reduces the need to monitor each other’s

behaviour and bond’s members around the belief that others on the team won’t take advantage of them.

The final contextual factor of an effective team is a performance evaluation and a reward structure or systems.

Team members have to be accountable both individually and jointly. So in addition to evaluating and rewarding employees for their

individual contributions, managers should consider group based



appraisals, profit-sharing, and other approaches that reinforce team effort and commitment.

TEAM COMPOSITION FACTORS THAT LEAD TO EFFECTIVENESS

Exhibit 1.1 provides a diagram of an effective team model, to create an understanding of some of the important factors in composing work teams.

These factors include; team member abilities, personality, role allocation, diversity, size of teams, member flexibility and member preferences

Part of a team’s performance depends on its member’s knowledge, skills and abilities.

Research has shown that to perform effectively, a team needs three different types of skills;

First it needs people with technical expertise. Secondly it needs members with problem-solving and decision-making

skills. Finally a team needs people with interpersonal skills.

Allocation of roles is important in all types of teams as it will give clarity as to who is responsible for performing a certain role and they should be allocated according to the types of skill and preferences of team member’s. listed below are the key roles of teams;

Explores ( explore-promoter – assessor- developer) Organiser’s (trustee -organiser -concluder- producer) Controller’s ( collector -inspector – upholder- maintainer) Advisors ( reporter- adviser-creator-innovator)

All the above mentioned key roles of teams are impossible without a middle person or a team leader where they will take the responsibility and take initiative in being the one to link and integrate the work of team members.

TEAM EFFECTIVENESS MODEL



LEARNING OUTCOME 4: UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO TEAM ROLES

ASSESSMENT CRITERIA 6- EXPLAINING THE DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO TEAM ROLES

BELBIN TEAM ROLES

Meredith Belbin identified eight types of people useful to have in teams. The following is a brief description of the characteristics of each role-

Company worker: their organising ability, practical common sense in hard work and self-disciplined in their conversations, being delightful and predictable.

Chairman: the capacity for treating and welcoming all potential contributors on their merits and without prejudice.


context

adequate resources

leadership and structure

climate of trust

performance evaluation and reward systems

composition

abilities of members

personality

allocating roles

diversity

size of teams

member flexibility

member preferences

work design

autonomy

skill variety

task identity

task significance

process

common purpose

specific goals

team efficancy

conflict levels

social loafing


Shaper: Their drive and readiness to challenge inertia, ineffectiveness, complacency or self-deception.

Plant: Someone who is the genius behind all of it, being orthodox. Monitor -evaluator: Someone who is sharp in judgement and discretion

that is unemotional if there is such. Resource investigator: someone who will be in full control of the

materials needed and necessary equipment. Completer or finisher: The capacity to follow through and implement

successfully.

Also made possible to understand team roles through different approaches is the Margerison-McCann Team Management Systems.

To determine team roles we need to discuss two underlying constructs, namely- work preferences and types of work;

Work preferences

As people work better in areas that match their preferences we then substantially may apply the “law of three p’s”- practice prefer and perform. We always tend to practice what we prefer- the more you practice the more likely you are to perform.

Types of work

Advising & innovating Promoting and Developing Organising and Producing Producing and Inspecting Maintaining and Linking

Team management profile

The team management profile mearsures the four key work preference factors of the work functions and key issues identified at the heart of managerial differences……..



End of theoretical evaluation assessment

WORKPLACE FEEDBACK

How does the company define work teams in general and what are the factors that have an influence on this type of work design?

Well work teams in this organisation is defined just as much the same as across all organisations as a group of people who specially and specifically, work as a team to be effective and efficient in managing a project from start to finish where the goal is short-term and perform all the duties necessary to carry out the plan. In essence we define the organisation as a team itself.

The factors that tend to influence or have an impact are internal issues, that being our micro- environment as an organisation or team and also with the most impact are the external issues beyond our control, of which is the macro environment.

What are the types of teams that the organisation has discovered and implemented or are most utilised?

We have departments to be more effective in your attainment of experience, our different departments consist of Human Resources as our engine in getting the right people to help us achieve our objectives- we have the finance department handling our finance, we have our Information technology (IT) department .etc.

In essence these are the type of structures we have in our organisation and with work team we have usually for a short term period assign a certain task to our selected or identified individuals who then come together to deal with that arising matter.

The different departments are divided into the following descriptions for the entire organisation;

Functional department – they are responsible for all the business operations (accounting , information systems and human resources)



Client services department Location or property management department Research and development department Marketing department, very important to be linked to our companies

geographic location Finance department- where all our business operations and primary

establishment is based on and sterns from. I believe that is our entire team in simple terms.

How were these effective teams composed?

The entire organisation that these teams exist from is the very same way to create the effectiveness of the entire plan and to support all the necessary steps and rules and regulations needed.

When we come together as an organisation we all come from different backgrounds of which is the way we embrace diversity, our organisational culture being clear to all of us in the organisation but most importantly we compose all of it through the employees abilities, skills and last but not least their knowledge so that we may be able to identify the relationships that are possible.

The different approaches to team roles;

My mentor suggested that I should rather answer this question myself as it is one that has a brief answer and I believe it to be true. A company’s employment status and functions of the human resources department is the approach that they use, as it is mostly stated in our job descriptions and job specialisations being viewed only through that you can see what is meant by an approach to team roles.

Evaluation Report and Reflection

I was given the privilege of entering into a very successful and big organisation, where I was welcomed despite my fears of being side



lined and left to do what was expected of me, with no guidance, instructions or without a positive learning environment. To my surprise this experience turned out to be the best practical exposure any student at a tertiary institution should be introduced to.

I discovered that even directors, top management and all other managers of big establishments are down to earth and still human in the end, and despite their ability to strike fear in an organisation they have a great love for their staff, customers and their jobs as a whole, which is what all individuals aim to achieve one day, a job they can be passionate about and enjoy what they do, nobody wants a job that simply depresses them and causes them stress.

What I enjoyed about the WIL programme

• I was exposed to the real working environment, where I could acquire new skills, knowledge and abilities.

• Not only did this assignment educate me personally, but it also serves as preparation and guidance for most of my modules at 3 rd

year level of Human Resource Management, because all my 3 rd

year modules intertwine in more than one manner.• This experience gave me a great sense of empowerment in the

organisation that I served, because I wasn’t only exposed practically, I was given the opportunity to be active, during a disciplinary hearing as well as a labour hearing.

• I felt important and relevant in the organisation, because I was often asked to address certain aspects of human resources and the suggestions I gave were actually taken seriously and to some extent were used to resolve issues.

• This assignment made me realise just a portion of my capabilities and the expertise I could offer to an organisation, it boosted my confidence in myself and has prepared me to be able to take theory and apply it in practical working environments effectively.



What I didn’t necessarily enjoy about the WIL programme

• Although students were given ample time to do this assignment it was difficult for some students, not only to find a company where they could job shadow, but they also couldn’t commit themselves to completing their 40 hours at that company.

• There were areas of confusion in terms of what was expected and in terms of compiling an assignment that is of a high enough standard. It is difficult to acquire all that’s asked of a student, the reason being that not all companies offer or are in possession of what’s needed for the assignment to be completed.

• The organisations questioned whether us as students would be able to acquire a sufficient amount of exposure, knowledge, skills, abilities and experience within a short space of 5 days, they stressed that at least a month was needed.

• As much as the assignment is relevant is was a bit much for some people to cope with, the reason being that this assignment can basically make or break a learner and most learners are used to backing themselves up with another assessment, not an assignment.

• The assignment showed some learners that they are not yet competent in a working environment and some students may end up being demotivated and realise Human Resource Management isn’t for them.

Recommendations

• This WIL programme needs to be explained to students from as early as first year, to enable them to prepare for the future and to be well aware of what will be expected of them in years to come and this may be an eye opener to some students that were not



totally aware of what to expect in Human Resource Management. Knowing early can encourage learners to carry out research and to even start seeking organisations that can offer them the exposure and mentors that are of the utmost relevance.

• The assignment needs to be structured in a way that students are clearer on what is expected of them and must create less rigidity and confusion on the aspects and requirements of the assignment.

• The assignment needs to be extended to a period of up to a month, in order for students to have sufficient time to gain enough knowledge and experience, 40 hours may only expose some learners to the gist of what to expect, due to no practical exposure in the space of 5 days.

• Students should be able to provide suggestions not only based on the learning unit they selected to undertake, but they should be able to make suggestions on any unit of the prescribed textbook, because they may discover errors outside the parameters of their learning unit.

Organisational culture and organogram

From my observations in the organisation of the work environment, and complaint reports I was given the opportunity to read, I am of the view that employees are empowered to submit complaints openly as long as the complaint is reasonable. However there is a safety gate where only the directors, managers, secretary and book keepers are



allowed to enter which seems to me is a closed door culture. The company aims to have a positive culture, which promotes friendliness, effective communication, professionalism, safety, and a respectful environment amongst subordinates and management.

Although there is no official organogram structure in the company the organogram of where I was placed to conduct my work integrated programme in my opinion was not able to be as effective as possible, because with there being no Human Resource Department all managers are delegated with the duties of a Human Resource Department, making it difficult to cope with their managerial duties and the additional duties of handling conflict procedures, negotiation processes and other disciplinary hearings, basically they are short staffed. Job sharing can be helpful in many organisations, however knowledge management needs to be practiced more in order for the human resources function to be more effective. Some staff may not have the necessary skills to deals with this particular area. Having said that, the skills I witnessed were capable if not formally trained.

REFERENCES1.SP Robbins- TA Jungle- A Odendaal- G Roodt Organisational behaviour ( global and southern African persperctive). Pearson’s education South Africa, copyright (stephen p. robbins- david a-marycoulter, 2015)(eric charoux, 2003) (R.ROOSEVELT THOMAS, Jr, 1999).


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