Clinical facilitation is a central function considered indispensable for achieving the integration of theory to practice for nursing students and staff. The aim of this study was to identify and prioritize the competencies required for clinical facilitators in acute care, private sector environments as well as identify the gaps that arise between the importance of the competency and the evidence that the competency exists in current practice. A structured questionnaire was administered by central collection method and e-mail to seven designations of nurses who were directly or indirectly involved with the function of clinical facilitation from three geographical regions in South Africa. Returns were analysed from 212 responses received. The results of the survey rank ordered the list of the importance of competencies as well as the evidence that the competency exists. The gap variables showed there is a definite need for training in all competencies. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Global competition and advances in technology are leading to the explosion of virtual teams in order to execute business strategies. Adoption of permanent virtual team structures enables companies access to best talent with rich cultural diversity as a form of competitive advantage. This new way of working brings forth challenges regarding leadership. The main purpose of this research was to identify perceptions on the leadership preferences and important factors enabling or inhibiting the effective leadership to manage virtual teams. Two types of data collection methodologies were used, namely, qualitative and quantitative in two phases. The first phase was to gain in-depth knowledge on the themes and constructs to be used to develop the questionnaire. The survey for the second phase took the form of self-administered quantitative questionnaires. In total 59 responses were received; 13 virtual managers, 23 virtual subordinates and 23 respondents who were both virtual managers and virtual subordinates. The outcome revealed that soft leadership skills are core to the success of virtual teams. There was a consistent view on findings between managers, subordinates and respondents who are both managers and subordinates. By understanding the relative importance of key skills, enablers and inhibitors, virtual managers will be able to demonstrate the different leadership qualities and practices required to effectively lead virtual teams. The key finding of the study was that at the crux of effective leadership in virtual teams is the ability for managers to display socio-emotional capabilities. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

In the modern day organisation where the emphasis is largely on teams rather than individuals, it is of critical importance to have teams who can be regarded as high-performing. High performing teams will ensure that companies can achieve more with less in terms of resources required. However the creation of a high performing team remains a consistent challenge due to innate human behaviour and traits. One of the keys that could assist in the creation of a high-performing work team is a strength-based leadership approach. The study compromised of firstly, the philosophy of strength-based leadership and the underpinnings of this philosophy. Secondly, the author also looked at the high-performance team model, attributes associated with this model and the various theories of how a high-performing team can be created. Thirdly an empirical study was conducted using a selected management team within a major automotive manufacturer that was already following the strength-based leadership approach. The empirical study aimed to establish to what degree this leadership philosophy is being followed as well as gauging the current level of team performance. Finally the empirical findings were correlated with the theoretical back ground established, and recommendations were made. Overall the team studied can be regarded as a high-performing work team, partially due to their approach in following the strength-based leadership approach. Individual team members are very aware of their own strengths as well as those of their fellow team members. The manager also seeks to continually utilize the individual strengths of his team. The team also has a very positive attitude and subsequently team motivation and performance is very high. However conflict resolution is currently a potential barrier to further performance enhancement.

Numerous decisions in organisations are made by teams, groups or committees. The need for group decision making is brought about by the increased complexity of many decisions which require specialised knowledge in numerous areas usually not possessed by one person. As such there has also been an inherent recognition that different members bring different contributions and that a marshalling of these contributions enhances decision-making. Most research about how to make teams more effective has focused on identifying the task processes that distinguish the most successful teams - that is specifying the need for collaboration, involvement and commitment to goals. The assumption seems to be that, once identified; these processes can simply be imitated by other teams, with similar effects but it is not the case since they do not take the level of the team’s emotional intelligence into consideration. Emotional intelligence should always be considered in a team setting since teamwork is an inherently social activity and as such emotions play an important role in team processes including decision making. Surprisingly the study of the effects of emotions and emotional intelligence in decision making at group level is a relatively new research avenue. Research indicates that emotional intelligence has been the subject of a significant amount of literature for a number of years. However little has been contributed to how the behaviours associated with emotional intelligence may be practically applied to enhance both individual and group decision-making. Druskat and Wolff (2001a and 2001b) proposed a model for emotional intelligence at the group level. According to their model, groups develop a set of behavioural norms called the Group Emotional Competence Norms (GEC norms) which guide the emotional experience in groups. The proposed model by Druskat and Wolff was used to define and measure group emotional intelligence in this study. The aim of the study was to establish whether there was a relationship between team emotional intelligence and team decision making at Transnet Port Terminal’s Ngqura Container Terminal. The findings of the literature study and the empirical study were combined to evaluate whether team emotional intelligence affected team decision making in the chosen population.The literature study suggested that there was a relationship between team emotional intelligence and team decision making. The empirical study confirmed the relationship between group emotional intelligence and group decision making but failed to confirm whether the chosen population consisted of teams.

Teams have increasingly become the means for completing tasks in many organisations, and organisations have turned to teams as a better way to use employee talents. Many South African companies have established work teams to solve both complex and minor problems, and some companies’ performance has increased due to the implementation of work teams. The fact that organisations are using teams does not necessarily mean they are always effective, there are many factors that contribute to team effectiveness in an organisation, and these factors need to be identified and managed properly so that the team can remain effective and produce the results that are expected. Management of most companies is unaware of the factors that contribute to group and team effectiveness, and most teams are ineffective because of the lack of focus on the factors that improve group and team effectiveness. This is the reason or objective why this study was conducted at Transnet Engineering, to identify the factors that are critical to improving team effectiveness. The researcher conducted a literature review in order to determine the factors that improve group and team effectiveness. Some of the factors deal with organisational culture, motivation (monetary and non-monetary motivation), diversity in teams, size of teams, formulation of teams, team leadership, team goals, team structures, team member training, trust in teams, etc. An empirical study with the use of a questionnaire was also conducted to determine the perceptions that supervisors, superintendents, foremen and managers have at Transnet Engineering with regards to factors that improve group and team effectiveness. The research instrument was grouped into five categories; organisational context, individual context, team context, management support and team effectiveness. More than 50 percent of the respondents agreed with the organisational and individual context factors that were tested, around 75 percent of the respondents agreed with team context factors that were tested, almost 60 percent of respondents agreed with management support factors, and more than 60 percent of respondents indicated that their teams are effective. Although there is general agreement between most factors identified in the literature study and the empirical study, the following will need more focus:  Offering of team resources  Leadership support from executive committee members (EXCO)  Proper reward and recognition systems  Conducting research to identify employee satisfaction levels  Team development  Diversity management  Talent management  Team size

Advantages of applying information and communication technologies to support complex team practices in healthcare domain have often been supported in the extant literature. The primary assumption is that before putting any technologies in place to support team functions, the team-based environment should be completely modeled. To date, many frameworks have been proposed for modeling healthcare teams; however, most of the frameworks only focus on single or a few aspects of teamwork and the outcomes usually present overlaps, limitations and inconsistencies. As a result, there is an increasing demand for offering an overarching framework that integrates the multiple dimensions of healthcare teamwork into a synthetic whole and clearly conceptualizes the potentially important relationships and dependencies that exist over those dimensions. In order to properly address the aforementioned challenge, this thesis applies ontological engineering to develop an overarching framework for integrating the multiple dimensions of teamwork concept in healthcare domain. For this purpose, we first illustrate a set of four stage methodological approach to provide explicit details on how to incorporate a theatrical foundation into the ontology. Then, the proposed approach is used to develop a derived ontological framework. Finally, accuracy and completeness of the proposed ontology based framework is validated to show that it is able to accurately represent the domain is it being employed for. The values and capabilities of ontology have already been studied and approved, and this technology is known as the best sources to represent a knowledge domain by means of concepts and accurately define the relationships among them. Our aim in this thesis is to further research how to develop and evaluate a standard ontology based framework to facilitate the healthcare team modeling.

M.Phil. (Personal and Professional Leadership) / in the workplace often cannot work together effectively towards optimal performance. Employees often experience relationship problems in the workplace. Not many realise that a lack of understanding of personality contribute to these problems. Through this study, the objective was to investigate whether a basic understanding of personality types is a factor that can significantly improve workplace relationships in teams and therefore improve effective teamwork and team performance in companies. The motivation for this study was to make a contribution towards helping teams function more effectively, specifically by improving workplace relationships through applying an understanding of personality types in teams. The empirical research method used in this study was a mixed method approach of quantitative and qualitative research. Quantitative research was done through a survey questionnaire that was completed by a sample of respondents (n=183) from companies in the financial industry. This was supplemented by qualitative research by means of focused group interviews (n=16) with team leaders and managers of the survey participants. While the results were not found to be typical of the broader population, enough evidence were found to suggest that employees in the workplace realise the need for working together better in their teams, and seeing the value that personality profiling can bring towards achieving this reality.

Mini-dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of Master of Education Degree in the Department of Educational Planning and Administration at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2009. / The study investigates the role school management teams in whole school evaluation. Education institutions are faced with changes and new policies that need to be implemented in order to achieve the national educational goals of quality education in schools. The South African Schools Act, No 84 of 1996, positions SMT as leaders in schools. Therefore SMTs have a responsibility of working collaboratively with the staff to implement whole school evaluation. The whole school evaluation policy provides guidelines on how to conduct internal evaluation, followed by external evaluation, which will be conducted by departmental officials. Literature was reviewed on the strategies that need to be adopted by SMTs to implement whole school evaluation successfully. Empirical study involved the use of a questionnaire consisting of closed and open-ended questions .The study was conducted in Umbumbulu circuit which is within Umlazi district The population for survey consisted of 130 schools. The study revealed that SMT members are not well-equipped to implement whole school evaluation in their schools. The following are the key findings: ♦> Some SMT members lack knowledge about WSE ❖ Some SMT members still resist change which entails implementation of WSE ❖ Minimal departmental support to adequately capacitate SMT members to facilitate WSE is evidenced. ♦> There is poor sharing of information among members of school SMT in school The following are key recommendations that are offered: ❖ SMT members should be given adequate training by the Department of Education in respect of WSE ❖ Staff involvement is crucial for decision making about WSE ❖ School development teams must be established to promote WSE This study is regarded as significant because it provides valuable information about the role of school management team in the facilitation, of whole school evaluation in primary schools.. The strategies that are required for the successful implementation of WSE provided via literature review suggest important mechanism and ideas which SMTs can use to implement effective WSE programmes.

The core objective of this study was to explore the relationship between training method, the perceived effectiveness of workplace training and the three dimensions of organisational commitment namely, affective, normative and continuance commitment. The question that initiated the exploration was the role of learnerships in the workplace and whether or not they, as a different method of workplace training were perceived as effective training methods by learners and if this was related to the three types of organisational commitment, namely; affective, normative and continuance commitment. A quasi experimental methodology with a static group design was adopted. No randomisation or matching of groups utilised in this study took place. Questionnaires were sent out to the learnership trained (test group) and alternatively trained employees (control group) performing phlebotomy. The responses obtained were coded and run through SPSS v16. Descriptive statistics together with validity percentages were obtained. Group statistics were obtained. An Independent Samples t-test was run and Cohen’s size effect test was calculated. A Pearson’s Correlation Matrix was utilised to test the variance between perceived effectiveness of training and the three types of organisational commitment. Findings indicated that the learnership trained employees did perceive their training as more effective. The Pearson’s Correlation Matrix also indicated that a significant correlation was found between the perceived effectiveness of training and all three types of organisational commitment. However, learnership trained employees did not demonstrate higher levels of organisational commitment. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe the current status of successful management teams in Oregon public schools as they exist in 1988, after more than fifteen years of evolution as the preferred management practice. Study Questions asked were: (1) Why was the team management concept implemented? (2) How has the management team evolved? (3) How is the management team organized? (4) How does the management team operate? (5) How are management team members involved in developing, recommending, implementing, and monitoring school district policies and administrative regulations? (6) What are the most important characteristics or elements found as part of successful management teams which are essential to the school district's management team being "successful"? A descriptive, multiple-case study design was used to study the activities of successful management teams within the unique context of their actual school system operations. Three "successful" management teams were selected for case studies by a panel of educational experts, using the following criterion. Which Oregon public school systems represent both: (a) "a successful management team" as endorsed and promoted by the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators and the Oregon School Boards Association, and (b) "a state of the art" model of team management as it is evolving? Separate case studies were conducted and written for each of the three selected management teams. Multiple sources of evidence were collected, using (1) documentation, (2) archival records, (3) interviews and surveys, and (4) direct observations. A cross-case analysis was conducted, resulting in a written description of the similarities among successful management teams in three Oregon public school systems. The conclusions of the study supported the five study propositions: (1) successful management teams implemented the team management concept because it was the preferred method of educational leadership which allowed greater participation by administrators, and resulted in improved decision making; (2) successful management teams have evolved since their original implementation, until they presently represent the unique management needs and resources of the school system; (3) successful management teams are made up of a group of school district administrators consisting of the superintendent and (or representatives of) central staff, principals, and ancillary personnel having supervisory positions; and are structured to allow the maximum, efficient input and participation by that group; (4) successful management teams involve administrators in developing, recommending, implementing, and monitoring school district policies and admlnistrative regulations; and (5) successful management teams have in common certain characteristics or elements which are essential to the management teams being "successful." The following synthesis of the conclusions was developed from a multitude of identified characteristics or elements of successful management teams. Successful management teams: (1) establish and support common goals and direction for the school system; (2) involve all team members in shared decision-making; (3) foster teamwork and team spirit; (4) involve all team members in the policy and administrative regulation activities of the school system; and (5) are designed, organized, and operated in response to the unique requirements of the organization. Recommendations were made to practitioners for the application of the conclusions and identified characteristics or elements of successful management teams. A Management Team Profile instrument was also developed for use in assessing the successfulness of management teams. Suggestions for additional study were made based upon the findings and experience in conducting this study. Replication of this study in large school districts and districts with unsuccessful management teams could provide further insights into what makes management teams "successful."