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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...

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Main Author: Sibanda, Babusi Michael
Other Authors: Horwitz, Frank
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Organisational Psychology 2017
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access_status_str Open Access
author Sibanda, Babusi Michael
author2 Horwitz, Frank
author_browse Horwitz, Frank
Sibanda, Babusi Michael
author_facet Horwitz, Frank
Sibanda, Babusi Michael
author_sort Sibanda, Babusi Michael
collection Thesis
description 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.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:33:51.607Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2017
publishDateRange 2017
publishDateSort 2017
publisher Organisational Psychology
publisherStr Organisational Psychology
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/23797 A qualitative study of team-based self-management in a Southern African organization Sibanda, Babusi Michael Horwitz, Frank Organisational Psychology 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. 2017-01-31T14:20:20Z 2017-01-31T14:20:20Z 2003 2016-12-15T13:31:28Z Master Thesis Masters MA http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23797 eng application/pdf Organisational Psychology Faculty of Commerce University of Cape Town
spellingShingle Organisational Psychology
Sibanda, Babusi Michael
A qualitative study of team-based self-management in a Southern African organization
thesis_degree_str Master's
title A qualitative study of team-based self-management in a Southern African organization
title_full A qualitative study of team-based self-management in a Southern African organization
title_fullStr A qualitative study of team-based self-management in a Southern African organization
title_full_unstemmed A qualitative study of team-based self-management in a Southern African organization
title_short A qualitative study of team-based self-management in a Southern African organization
title_sort qualitative study of team based self management in a southern african organization
topic Organisational Psychology
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/23797
work_keys_str_mv AT sibandababusimichael aqualitativestudyofteambasedselfmanagementinasouthernafricanorganization
AT sibandababusimichael qualitativestudyofteambasedselfmanagementinasouthernafricanorganization