Business Chambers worldwide strive to promote trade and investment. These chambers act on behalf of businesses in an effort to enhance economic growth and development. The Port Elizabeth Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PERCCI) was established in 1994 with a view to fostering, encouraging, promoting, protecting, developing and establishing commercial and industrial enterprises within the Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage Metropole (now Nelson Mandela Bay). Thus PERCCI has since changed its name to Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber (NMBBC). The NMBBC focuses on the provision of services to business in the form of information, communication, seminars, task teams, networking functions and a strong international trade focus. Lobbying, representation and strategic interventions are also key focus areas, with the objective of facilitating an environment which is conducive to economic growth. The vision of the NMBBC is to be a leading and dynamic business chamber that contributes effectively to the economic growth of Nelson Mandela Bay. The vision, mission and objectives of the NMBBC are delivered through the following task teams, each its own specific mandate: Crime Task Team, Corporate Social Investment (CSI) Task Team, Environment, Health & Wellness, Human Capital Development, Industrial Development Strategy, International Trade & Investment, Mentorship Programme, Service Excellence, SME Task Team, Strategic Projects/Infrastructure, Strategic Resources Forum, Tourism Task Team and Transport Task Team. Currently, only four of these task teams are in operation and the effectiveness of their functioning is currently not well established. Therefore, the present study investigated the factors which influence the effective functioning of the task teams, with a view to improving their performance and overall contribution to the organisation. A literature study was conducted on factors influencing the effectiveness of teams and a hypothesized theoretical model developed. Thereafter, an empirical study was conducted within a positivist paradigm using primarily a case study approach. Initial focus group interviews with 17 task team members were followed up by a questionnaire survey distributed amongst 75 NMBBC task team members. The factors investigated were: Clear Purpose, Clear Roles, Open Communication, Shared Leadership, Motivation and Commitment and their influence on team effectiveness. The empirical results indicate that relationships exist amongst all the factor variables investigated with the most significant relation found to be between commitment and motivation. The results further indicate that all the measured factor variables exert an influence on the effectiveness of the task teams with commitment being the most influencing variable and motivation the least. The study concludes that while the task teams are making a significant contribution to the performance of the NMBBC, they are nonetheless not functioning optimally. As there is room for improvement, the study makes a number of recommendations to the NMBBC in an effort to increase the effectiveness of their task teams.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:8896 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Schultz, Lizle |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MBA |
| Format | x, 130 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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