A qualitative study of team-based self-management in a Southern African organization

A Southern African (Zimbabwean) nickel refinery's team-based employee involvement initiative is studied using a qualitative, single case design with the objective of describing, understanding and characterising a Self Directed Work Team's experience in its context. It is found, through a variety of triangulated case study methods, that the selected team's work, and its members' perception of it, have changed significantly from traditional 'foreman supervised' and ' gang-leader driven' organization to relatively informed decision making, objective driven, multi-skilled teamwork. Findings are analysed in the light of international and Southern African literature and case studies of enterprise level, team-based employee involvement in work related decision making. Context considerations, in understanding the team and its potential for self direction were found to be pervasive. The initiative was found to be part of a bundle of complementary interventions that top management perceived to be organizational survival imperatives. Successful implementation was largely limited to the Smelter and Refinery Business Units (BSR Ltd) which were led by a succession of dynamic and committed senior line managers. The failure to diffuse the initiative to the rest of the organization (the organization's mining division) was blamed on the departure of the key sponsor as well as wider corporate and societal systemic constraints. The contextualised study suggests ways of seeing, and possibly going beyond the claimed and real constraints.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Organisational Psychology

Year dc:date.issued

2003

Author dc:creator

• Sibanda, Babusi Michael

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Horwitz, Frank

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23797

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/23797