M.Ed. / The problem in this study is informed by dysfunctional Soweto schools underperformance in terms of academic excellence and financial management. This research study is motivated on a large scale by the political changes that have taken place in South Africa, which impacted on transformation of the education system. The whole education system is democratic and allows for legitimate participation of all stakeholders on issues that concern the school. The main aim of this research was to investigate the existence of teamwork in the management of dysfunctional Soweto schools, the extent to which participants in decision making are involved in decisions affecting them and to gather their opinions on managing with teams. A combination of qualitative and quantitative study has thus been undertaken in an attempt to gain an understanding of the current situation as perceived by teachers, principals, parents and learners. The methods used have included the use of individual interviews and focus group interviews. A randomly selected sample of data was collected from five principals, twenty teachers, five parents and a focus group of learners from five dysfunctional Soweto schools. The idea was to obtain views from a broad cross sector of educators, parents, and learners. According to McMillan and Schumacher inductive analysis means that categories and relationships emerge from the data rather than being imposed on data prior to data collection. The researcher has therefore compiled categories and relationships from the data. From the research study conducted, it is clear that the concept “teamwork” is known by all involved in school matters. The respondents indicated that teamwork should be implemented in each school. It is also clear from the data collected and analyses that a highly involved management is needed, built on shared understanding on new ways of working and commitment to the improvement of performance. This means that managers and educators are to be empowered in as far as teamwork is concerned. The researcher recommends that the task of running the schools should not be the sole responsibility of the principal as it was in the past and that a collaborative effort of all stakeholders in education is important. / Prof. J.R. Debeila

D.Ed. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

D.Phil. / Identity is a cognitive concept that describes “who I am”, and an important part of an individual’s identity is derived from shared social entities. However, as work and the work setting began playing prominent roles in most people’s social lives, the social identity derived from the working environment became the focus of several studies. It was, however, recognised that the locus of identification stretched beyond the organisation to other social phenomena available in the work setting. This finding encouraged a change of focus, which asserts that facets of work are sources of identification. The construct, work identity (WI), captures this extended understanding of social identity derived from work. There were also several research agendas about ways to strengthen or manipulate the relationship between employees and their work and/or workplace. Concepts such as work involvement, work commitment, work engagement, work centrality, and person-organisation fit represent this category of enquiry. As identity or identification was often mentioned in the definitions of these concepts, the concepts are perceived as WI-associated concepts. As several researchers recognised concept redundancy or concept contamination among the WI-associated concepts and between the WI-associated concepts and WI, further clarification of WI was needed. The purpose of this research project was to generate a model of the antecedents and consequences of WI in multicultural work settings. Conducting the research in a multicultural setting did not only test the theoretical ideas in a challenging context, but it contributed to a better understanding of employees from the research setting. The study used a cross-sectional field survey in order to gather responses from a convenience sample of employees from workplaces in Dubai. Data from 644 respondents was subjected to regression analysis and structural equation modelling. One characteristic of the dataset was the positively skewed distribution within some scales and significant disparity in the mean calculations of different nationality groups. Applying multiple regression to analyse and explore bivariate relationships, the data supported a positive relationship between job resources and WI. As an unexpected weak positive relationship between job demands and WI was also found, further research into the behaviour of job demands is required. A strong predictive relationship between WI and work engagement was indicated and a negative relationship between WI and turnover intentions was supported. Structural equation modelling identified a parsimonious model of WI in multicultural work settings which contained the concepts of job resources and job demands as antecedents of WI, with work engagement and turnover intentions as consequences of WI. The strength of causal relationships within this model was significantly affected by three moderator variables, namely level of education, age and, most strongly, by nationality. Therefore, although a stable covariance model was accepted, different nationality groups still processed the relationships between variables within the model in unique ways. Although WI manifested itself as a single-component structure in previous research that operationalised WI in the same way as this study, three facets of WI emerged here: work centrality, person-organisation fit, and value congruence. The different WI facets did not consistently relate to the antecedents or the consequences of WI in the same way. In addition, in response to findings of redundancy and contamination in previous studies, WI was found to be distinct from work engagement. This finding is a catalyst for future research to explore facets of WI and for researchers to revisit work engagement a consequence of WI and work engagement in multicultural work settings.

There is a lack of theoretically based, and empirically proven, team training methods for optimising and maintaining effective team performance. The aims of the thesis were to: (i) develop a method to carry out team training needs analyses, and use this to identify theoretically valid intervention techniques; (ii) develop and test a particular type of team training designed to improve team performance in high-reliability industries; and (iii) develop and utilise team training evaluation techniques. A team training needs analysis was carried out to identify the team training requirements of nuclear power plant operations personnel. This resulted in the design of a nuclear team skills taxonomy, in which the specific team competencies required by the team members were identified. Using this taxonomy it was possible to identify four training and three organisational interventions to improve the performance of the teams. The remainder of the thesis concentrated on the application of the most widely applied team training technique, Crew Resource Management (CRM) training. CRM has been used in the aviation industry for over 20 years, and is beginning to be applied in other high-reliability industries. However, a survey of UK aviation operators (n=l13) showed that the majority do not utilise formal evaluation techniques to assess the effects of their CRM training. The main reasons for this are a shortage of resources and a lack of guidance on suitable techniques for evaluating training. Several CRM evaluation techniques were developed and tested. A questionnaire was designed to assess the effects of CRM training on the attitudes of nuclear operations personnel. It was found there was generally an initial increase in the positivity of attitudes immediately after training, and then a decay in attitudes when they were measured again after a delay of six months. A prototype CRM training course was designed, and delivered to 77 offshore oild and gas production personnel Their reactions to the training were generally favourable and, as measured using a questionnaire, a significant increase in positivity of attitudes was found for decision making and personnel limitations, but not situation awareness or iii communications. The ability of the course participants to identify the causes of accidents in written scenarios was also not found to improve as a result of the CRM training. Finally, a European behavioural marker system designed to allow an assessment to be made of the non-technical (CRM) skills of flight deck crews (called NOTECHS) was tested. Data were provided from an experiment involving 105 training captains from 14 European airlines. Following an analysis of the validity and reliability, it was concluded that the NOTECHS system appears to be a satisfactory system for carrying out an evaluation of pilots' CRM behaviours in the aviation industry. The main findings of the thesis were: (i) A multi-faceted methodology was found to be useful in carrying out a training needs analysis, and to identify intervention techniques to improve team performance. However, these interventions must be applied and evaluated to assess their effectiveness. (ii) Researchers must take care when using a team training method, such as CRM, which has been successful utilised in one particular organisation, and applying the same model in another without first testing it in the new domain. (iii) There is a need to develop more reliable questionnaire items to assess attitudes to CRM skills such as decision making and situation awareness, and techniques to assess the CRM-related knowledge of participants. It is argued that properly designed and tested behavioural marker systems provide a method for evaluating the CRM skills of operations personnel, as long as the system is valid and reliable, and raters have received training to use it accurately. As industry becomes increasingly complex, there is a continuous challenge to design, deliver, and evaluate team training. Overall, this thesis has added to the research to address these challenges and indicated the areas in which further psychological research is required. It is only through this type of analysis that team training theory can develop and practitioners can be provided with the tools necessary to design effective team training.

No description available.

The research undertaken in this study was to identify the strategy needed to be adopted by the East Cape Motor Industry Cluster (ECMIC) in order to develop the competencies of its Team Leaders. v Hamel and Prahalad (1994: 28) are of the opinion that the focus of a company must move from current market share, to the share of tomorrow’s opportunities that the company can reasonably expect to gain. The company must therefore consider what it can achieve with its existing set of competencies, and what new competencies need to be acquired in order to prosper in the future. The development of competencies is thus deemed to be critical to the South African economy as the various local automotive manufacturers enter the export field. The ECMIC has traditionally been considered the heart of the automotive industry in South Africa with three of the major manufacturers located in the Nelson Mandela and Buffalo City Metropoles. In order to support these manufacturers, a vast number of component manufacturers and service providers have been established to support the automotive manufacturers both in the ECMIC and in other areas of the country. Since the establishment of a democratic South Africa and the removal of sanctions, the automotive industry has started to establish itself globally. This study will undertake a literature study of the application of competencies in the workplace, teams and team leaders and how competencies are applied in the ECMIC. The results of an empirical study into core competencies in the ECMIC will be used to elucidate a set of competencies which will be used to develop a strategy utilising the competency approach in team leaders in the ECMIC.

Facilitators are encouraged to get all meeting attendees to participate in the meeting. There is the assumption made that, if they do participate, then this participation will increase the group's general satisfaction of the meeting. Also, knowing the factors that can increase the probability of a successful meeting has been a focus of previous research, yet attendee participation has not been studied. The current research study empirically examines participation's effect on meeting evaluations. This study is a field experiment conducted in a team-based organization, where successful meetings are critical. Data was collected on the amount of participation of team members in their weekly team meeting and their evaluations of the meeting. After running correlations and a principal components analysis, this study found a relationship between participation and meeting evaluations. A scale of meeting success was also created.

Encouraging positive work team growth depends on, in part, the form and availability of organizational resources and support. Support systems have been found to be important for work team health and survival. However, managers are challenged to make resource decisions while working within company budgetary restraints. Previous research has indicated a positive relationship exists between teams provided with appropriate resources and support, and increased team performance. This study extended previous research by exploring if team performance can predict resources and support. Specifically, the means by which managers allocate resources based on team performance was examined. Archival data included 36 work teams and their managers drawn from four geographically dispersed manufacturing companies. Information gathered from a modified version of an original team support system instrument was used to assess the importance and presence of four resource systems. Additionally, a gap score was calculated from these scores to assess the alignment between resource need and resource existence. Data was used to assess the potential relationships between managers' perceptions of team performance and the manner by which resources are allocated. All hypotheses produced non-significant findings. Results of the hypotheses, data patterns, and limitations of the study are discussed, and opportunities for future research are presented.

The relationship between perceived leader behavior and work group behavior was examined. Archival survey data was used in the analyses. The company that developed the survey randomly selected 595 employees to complete the survey. Results suggest there is a strong and significant relationship between leader and subordinate behavior. Group members who report that their leader demonstrates a particular behavior also report that their work group demonstrates the same or similar behavior, suggesting that subordinates may be modeling the behavior of their leader. Leadership behaviors related to trust, availability, respect, conflict, and support seem to be the best predictors of work group behavior. Furthermore, whether or not group members have received team training appears to have an effect on their perceptions of their leader and work group. The challenge for leaders is to understand modeling principles so that they can facilitate the modeling of functional rather than dysfunctional behaviors.

Organizations need to develop innovations to meet emerging problems and challenges due to increasing global competition, customer expectations, or market changes. Responding to these challenges requires employees to create solutions within their organizations, such as new products or processes. While some research has found crucial roles of individual faculty in the innovation process, less is known about how individual educators (i.e., university faculty and clinical practitioners) work across knowledge and organizational boundaries.The purpose of this case study on team innovative work behavior (TIWB) in higher education was to learn more about which team learning behaviors (TLBs) and team innovative work behaviors (TIWBs) were exhibited by a university-based cross-boundary work team to understand how these complex organizations can leverage learning toward practice improvement. The purposefully selected sample was composed of an 11 member California-based work team consisting of 5 faculty members from a redesigning public university, 4 senior administrators from partnering public school districts, and 2 faculty members from a partnering mentor program. The primary data collection method was in depth critical incident (CI) interviews. Supportive methods included a pre-interview questionnaire, field observations, document and artifact review, and a group interview. The data were coded and analyzed first by research question, and then findings were organized thematically in alignment with three analytic categories based on the study’s conceptual framework. The research revealed that the team exhibited several TLBs and one TIWB throughout the redesign process. The team’s capacity for learning and innovating was strongly influenced by the organizational conditions that brought the team together as well as the team’s leadership and facilitation. While few of the team members were able to articulate their own learning and practice changes explicitly, they did reflect on their learning in the context of task completion and goal achievement. Recommendations are offered for university and district practitioners, and for further research, including: (1) identifying a team leader with both positional and reputational authority, (2) selecting a team based on existing relationships and shared commitment to change, (3) using evidence to challenge existing assumptions, and (4) aligning activities to organizational and environmental forces.