1. WORK INTEGRATED LEARNING PORTFOLIO
WORK INTEGRATED
LEARNING
PORTFOLIO
UNDERSTANDINGWORK TEAMS
DISCOVERINGTHE WORLD OF WORK
2015
NKULULEKO KHUMALO
MOMENTUM
12/10/2015

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Introduction
This is an introduction to the company that I Nkululeko Khumalo 201239780
conducted the work integrated learning programme in. The name of the
company is Momentum a division of MMI group limited, an authorised
financial services and credit provider. Their Human Resources is based in their
head office in Pretoria, centurion- however all the functions of Human
Resources Management relating to understanding work teams were observed
and encrypted.
Momentum was established in 1966 and has grown organically. Through
strategic acquisitions and mergers, the company became known as
Momentum in 1973 when Momentum Assurance Corporation was acquired.
Rand Merchant Bank Holdings (RMBH) was established in 1987, creating Rand
Merchant Bank (RMB) as a wholly-owned subsidiary. Momentums growth
escalated when RMBH took over Sankorp’s interest in Momentum life in 1992,
and RBM became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Momentum life, which in turn
became a subsidiary of RMBH.
Anglo American merged their financial services interests with RMBH in April
1998. The new holding company, FirstRand Limited, became the largest
financial services company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) at the
time. As part of the transaction, Momentum merged with Southern Life. The
creation of FirstRand, along with Momentums merger with Sage in 2005 are
two of the milestones that contributed to making momentum one of South
Africa’s leading insurance and assert management providers.
In December 2010, Momentumand Metropolitan Holdings merged to form the
listed entity MMI Holdings. As part of the MMI Holdings Group, Momentum
continues to offer superior financial services in the advice, insurance,
investments and health areas; contributing to the financial wellness journey of
each of our clients.
The most suitable and best mentors from the Momentum company financial
services provider were, Mr Methodius Mavuso- Financial management
assistant and Consultant and Mr Greg saulter Client services consultant.

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THEORETICAL EVALUATION: UNDERSTANDING WORK TEAMS
UNDERSTANDING WORK TEAMS
Learning outcome 1: understanding the concept of work teams;
Assessment Criteria 1: Define work teams and explain the factors that
influence it.
WORK TEAMS (Definition)
 Are groups whose members work intensely on a specific common goal
using their positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability- also
their complementary skills.
 A positive energy is that which is generated through coordinated efforts
and results in a level of performance is greater than the sum of those
individual inputs.
 It involves a formal system of employee involvement, direct
participation and a high degree of control.
 Teams consists; of employees from diverse managerial and professional
backgrounds working for a specific period of time on certain projects.
The benefits of work teams
 Improved organisational performance
 Innovative solutions
 Improves quality, productivity & customer service
The employee benefits
 Quality of work life
 Reduces stress

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 Work satisfaction and less use of employee programmes
FACTORS THAT TEND TO INFLUENCE WORK TEAMS
Focusing on objectives
 According to rise university web services, a team is driven by a common
goal, in order to have an effective team that common goal needs to be
spelled out in advance and understood by team members.
 It is also important for a team to focus on the objective it has as a team.
Compensation
 A team works well when each member to the team has a clear
understanding of their reward for the efforts employed, it is always
advisable to any business to formally draw up a compensation plan
before establishing any team.
 It is always better to remove compensation as an obstacle to effective
team work
Communication
Communication between team members and communication from
management to the team, encouraging open communication is vital.
Dealing with conflict
Conflicts tend to throw a team off its focus, getting it away from its
objectives and goals- by learning to deal with conflict immediately a
team can remain effective at all times.
Different personalities
As a team consists of different persons each as a team member belong
to different cultures and come from different backgrounds, it is always

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going to be a factor that needs to be set aside and dealt with out of
team engagement schedules.
Assessment Criteria 2: Discuss the differences between groups and teams
Comparing work groups and work teams
WORK GROUPS WORK TEAMS
Share information -goal- Collective
performance
Neutral (sometimes negative)-synergy- positive
Individual -accountability- individual and
mutual
random and varied -skills-
complementary
Work teams do differ from work groups and have their own unique traits.
Work groups interact primarily to share information and to make decisions to
help each member do his or her job more efficiently and effectively.
There is no need or opportunity for work groups to engage in collective work
that requires joint effort.
On the other hand work teams are groups whosemembers work intensely on a
specific, common goal using their positive synergy, individual and mutual
accountability, and complementary skills. Managers are looking for that
positive synergy that will help the organisation improve its performance.
These descriptions should help clarify why so many organisations have
restructured work processes around teams.
LEARNING OUTCOME 2: Understanding different types of teams
Assessment criteria 2.1
Explaining the different types of work teams;
SELF DIRECTED WORK TEAMS

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A type of work team that operates without a manager and is responsible for a
complete work process or segment :
The team involves all of the employees in a specific area or those
working on a specific product or process.
The size of the team is unlimited but is usually made up of 12-15
employees who perform highly integrated and interdependent jobs.
Work teams make decisions that would generally be made by a
supervisor or any foreperson to management.
Typically these tasks involve planning, scheduling work, assigning tasks
to former members and working with suppliers and customers.
CROSS- FUNCTIONAL TEAMS
A work team composed of individuals from various specialities
Might be a team made up of employees from production, planning,
equipment, design engineering and information systems to automate.
These are teams made up of employees from about the same hierarchal
level but from different work areas who come together to accomplish a
task.
The improvement of decision making and management for economic
development in South Africa, integrating the input of all the different
subjects into one project.
It also provides a basis for people from diverse areas within the
organisation to share or exchange information.
In return they possess the quality to develop new ideas and solve
problems and coordinate complex projects
However building such a team takes time and building trust on people
from diverse ethnic groups who have their own perspective is a lot of
time and hard work.
VIRTUAL TEAMS
A type of work team that uses technology to link physically dispersed
members in order to achieve a common goal

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These team members report directly to a manager who works 500km
away from them.
Virtual teams allow people to collaborate online using a wide range
network.
They make use of computer technology to tie together physically
disposed members in order to archive a common goal.
Virtual teams are however more task-orientated in that they exchange
less social emotional information.
Virtual teams are characterised by certain amount of randomness chaos
and ad-hoc decision making.
Team progress is monitored closely so the team members do not lose
sight of goals, in essence no team member is unavailable or disappears
since the efforts and products of the virtual teams are publicised
thought the organisation.
PROBLEM SOLVING TEAMS
A team from the same department or functional area that’s involved in efforts
to improve work activities or to solve specific problems
These are the 5-12 hourly employees who meet on a regular basis of
each week to, who are from the same department and they meet to
discuss ways of improving quality, efficiency and the work environment.
With this type of structuremembers share ideas or offer suggestions on
how work processes and methods can be improved and they rarely or
slightly have the authority to unilaterally implement any of their
suggested actions.
IT is said that one of the most widely implemented and practiced
applications of problem solving teams during the 1980s was quality
circles.
 These are work teams of 8-10 employees and supervisors who have a
shared area of responsibility and meet regularly to discuss their quality
problems, recommend solutions and take corrective actions.
THE FOLLOWING ARE PREREQUISITES FOR THE SUCCESS OF PROBLEM-
SOLVING TEAMS.

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 Management must give meaningful and visible support to the
team.
 Teams need to be part of an on-going total approach to
improvement.
 All stakeholders must be involved; and
 Adequate training needs to be an on-going process.
LEARNING OUTCOME3: UNDERSTANDING HOW TO CREATE EFFECTIVE TEAMS
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA 4&5: THE KEY ASPECTS OF CREATING EFFECTIVE TEAM
AND HOW EFFECTIVE TEAMS ARE COMPOSED
 In evaluation there seems to be four contextual factors that appear to
be most significantly related to team performance.
 These factors include adequate resources, leadership and structure, a
climate of trust, and performance evaluation and reward systems.
 As part of the larger organisation system, a team relies on resources
outside the group to sustain it.
 If it doesn’t have adequate resources than the team’s ability to perform
its job effectively is reduced, this factor appears to be so important to
team performance that one research study concluded that effective
work teams must have support from the organisation.
 Resources can include timely information, proper equipment,
encouragement, adequate staffing, and administrative assistance.
 If a team can’t agree on who is to do what or ensure that all members
contribute equally in sharing the work load, it won’t function properly.
Agreeing on the specifics of work and how all the team members’
individual skills fit together requires teamleadershipand structure; this
aspect can come from the organisation or from the team itself.
 Members of effective teams trust each other.
 It facilitates cooperation, reduces the need to monitor each other’s
behaviour and bond’s members around the belief that others on the
team won’t take advantage of them.
 The final contextual factor of an effective team is a performance
evaluation and a reward structure or systems.

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 Team members have to be accountable both individually and jointly.
 So in addition to evaluating and rewarding employees for their
individual contributions, managers should consider group based
appraisals, profit-sharing, and other approaches that reinforce team
effort and commitment.
TEAM COMPOSITION FACTORS THAT LEAD TO EFFECTIVENESS
 Exhibit 1.1 provides a diagram of an effective team model, to create an
understanding of some of the important factors in composing work
teams.
 These factors include; team member abilities, personality, role
allocation, diversity, size of teams, member flexibility and member
preferences
 Part of a team’s performancedepends on its member’s knowledge, skills
and abilities.
 Research has shown that to perform effectively, a team needs three
different types of skills;
 First it needs people with technical expertise.
 Secondly it needs members with problem-solving and decision-making
skills.
 Finally a team needs people with interpersonal skills.
 Allocation of roles is important in all types of teams as it will give clarity
as to who is responsible for performing a certain role and they should
be allocated according to the types of skill and preferences of team
member’s. listed below are the key roles of teams;
 Explores ( explore-promoter – assessor- developer)
 Organiser’s (trustee -organiser -concluder- producer)
 Controller’s ( collector -inspector – upholder- maintainer)
 Advisors ( reporter- adviser-creator-innovator)
All the above mentioned key roles of teams are impossible without a middle
person or a team leader where they will take the responsibility and take
initiative in being the one to link and integrate the work of team members.

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TEAM EFFECTIVENESS MODEL
LEARNING OUTCOME 4: UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO
TEAM ROLES
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA 6- EXPLAINING THE DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO
TEAM ROLES
BELBIN TEAM ROLES
Meredith Belbin identified eight types of people useful to have in teams. The
following is a brief description of the characteristics of each role-
context
adequate
resources
leadership and
structure
climateof trust
performance
evaluation and
reward systems
composition
abilities of
members
personality
allocatingroles
diversity
sizeof teams
member flexibility
member
preferences
work design
autonomy
skill variety
task identity
task significance
process
common purpose
specific goals
team efficancy
conflictlevels
social loafing

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 Company worker: their organising ability, practical common sense in
hard work and self-disciplined in their conversations, being delightful
and predictable.
 Chairman: the capacity for treating and welcoming all potential
contributors on their merits and without prejudice.
 Shaper: Their drive and readiness to challenge inertia, ineffectiveness,
complacency or self-deception.
 Plant: Someone who is the genius behind all of it, being orthodox.
 Monitor -evaluator: Someone who is sharp in judgement and discretion
that is unemotional if there is such.
 Resource investigator: someone who will be in full control of the
materials needed and necessary equipment.
 Completer or finisher: The capacity to follow through and implement
successfully.
Also made possible to understand team roles through different approaches is
the Margerison-McCann Team Management Systems.
To determine team roles we need to discuss two underlying constructs,
namely- work preferences and types of work;
Work preferences
 As people work better in areas that match their preferences we then
substantially may apply the “law of three p’s”- practice prefer and
perform. We always tend to practice what we prefer- the more you
practice the more likely you are to perform.
Types of work
 Advising & innovating
 Promoting and Developing
 Organising and Producing
 Producing and Inspecting
 Maintaining and Linking

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Team management profile
The team management profile mearsures the four key work preference factors
of the work functions and key issues identified at the heart of managerial
differences……..
End of theoretical evaluation assessment
WORKPLACE FEEDBACK
How does the company define work teams in general and what are the
factors that have an influence on this type of work design?
 Well work teams in this organisation is defined just as much the same
as across all organisations as a group of people who specially and
specifically, work as a team to be effective and efficient in managing a
project from start to finish where the goal is short-term and perform
all the duties necessary to carry out the plan. In essence we define the
organisation as a team itself.
 The factors that tendto influence or have an impact are internal issues,
that being our micro- environment as an organisation or team and also
with the most impact are the external issues beyond our control, of
which is the macro environment.
What are the types of teams that the organisation has discovered and
implemented or are most utilised?
 We have departments to be more effective in your attainment of
experience, our different departments consist of Human Resources as
our engine ingetting the right people tohelpus achieve our objectives-
we have the finance department handling our finance, we have our
Information technology (IT) department .etc.
 In essence theseare the type of structures we have in our organisation
and with work team we have usually for a short term period assign a
certain task to our selected or identified individuals who then come
together to deal with that arising matter.

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The different departments are divided into the following descriptions for the
entire organisation;
 Functional department – they are responsible for all the business
operations (accounting , information systems and human resources)
 Client services department
 Location or property management department
 Research and development department
 Marketing department, very important to be linked to our companies
geographic location
 Finance department- where all our business operations and primary
establishment is based on and sterns from.
 I believe that is our entire team in simple terms.
How were these effective teams composed?
 The entire organisation that these teams exist from is the very same
way to create the effectiveness of the entire planandto support all the
necessary steps and rules and regulations needed.
 When we come together as an organisationwe all come from different
backgrounds of which is the way we embrace diversity, our
organisational culture being clear to all of us in the organisation but
most importantly we compose all of it through the employees abilities,
skills and last but not least their knowledge so that we may be able to
identify the relationships that are possible.
The different approaches to team roles;
 My mentor suggested that I should rather answer this question
myself as it is one that has a brief answer and I believe it to be true.
A company’s employment status and functions of the human
resources department is the approach that they use, as it is mostly
stated in our job descriptions and job specialisations being viewed
only through that you can see what is meant by an approach to
team roles.

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Evaluation Report and Reflection
I was given the privilege of entering into a very successful and big
organisation, where I was welcomed despite my fears of being side
lined and left to do what was expected of me, with no guidance,
instructions or without a positive learning environment. To my surprise
this experience turned out to be the best practical exposure any student
at a tertiary institution should be introduced to.
I discovered that even directors, top management and all other
managers of big establishments are down to earth and still human in the
end, and despite their ability to strike fear in an organisation they have a
great love for their staff, customers and their jobs as a whole, which is
what all individuals aim to achieve one day, a job they can be
passionate about and enjoy what they do, nobody wants a job that
simply depresses them and causes them stress.
What I enjoyed about the WIL programme
• I was exposed to the real working environment, where I could
acquire new skills, knowledge and abilities.
• Not only did this assignment educate me personally, but it also
serves as preparation and guidance for most of my modules at 3rd
year level of Human Resource Management, because all my 3rd
year modules intertwine in more than one manner.
• This experience gave me a great sense of empowerment in the
organisation that I served, because I wasn’t only exposed
practically, I was given the opportunity to be active, during a
disciplinary hearing as well as a labour hearing.
• I felt important and relevant in the organisation, because I was
often asked to address certain aspects of human resources and
the suggestions I gave were actually taken seriously and to some
extent were used to resolve issues.
• This assignment made me realise just a portion of my capabilities
and the expertise I could offer to an organisation, it boosted my
confidence in myself and has prepared me to be able to take
theory and apply it in practical working environments effectively.

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What I didn’t necessarily enjoy about the WIL programme
• Although students were given ample time to do this assignment it
was difficult for some students, not only to find a company where
they could job shadow, but they also couldn’t commit themselves
to completing their 40 hours at that company.
• There were areas of confusionin terms of what was expected and
in terms of compiling an assignment that is of a high enough
standard. It is difficult to acquire all that’s asked of a student, the
reason being that not all companies offer or are in possession of
what’s needed for the assignment to be completed.
• The organisations questioned whether us as students would be
able to acquire a sufficientamount of exposure, knowledge, skills,
abilities and experience within a short space of 5 days, they
stressed that at least a month was needed.
• As much as the assignment is relevant is was a bit much for some
people to cope with, the reason being that this assignment can
basically make or break a learner and most learners are used to
backing themselves up with another assessment, not an
assignment.
• The assignment showed some learners that they are not yet
competent in a working environment and some students may end
up being demotivated and realise Human Resource Management
isn’t for them.

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Recommendations
• This WIL programme needs to be explained to students from as
early as first year, to enable them to prepare for the future and to
be well aware of what will be expected of them in years to come
and this may be an eye opener to some students that were not
totally aware of what to expect in Human Resource Management.
Knowing early can encourage learners to carry out research and
to even start seeking organisations that can offer them the
exposure and mentors that are of the utmost relevance.
• The assignment needs to be structured in a way that students are
clearer on what is expected of them and must create less rigidity
and confusion on the aspects and requirements of the
assignment.
• The assignment needs to be extended to a period of up to a
month, in order for students to have sufficient time to gain enough
knowledge and experience, 40 hours may only expose some
learners to the gist of what to expect,due to no practical exposure
in the space of 5 days.
• Students should be able to provide suggestions notonly based on
the learning unit they selected to undertake, but they should be
able to make suggestions on any unit of the prescribed textbook,
because they may discover errors outside the parameters of their
learning unit.

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Organisational culture and organogram
From my observations in the organisation of the work environment,
and complaint reports I was given the opportunity to read, I am of the
view that employees are empowered to submit complaints openly as
long as the complaint is reasonable. However there is a safety gate
where only the directors, managers, secretary and book keepers are
allowed to enter which seems to me is a closed door culture. The
company aims to have a positive culture, which promotes friendliness,
effective communication, professionalism, safety, and a respectful
environment amongst subordinates and management.
Although there is no official organogram structure in the company
the organogram of where I was placed to conduct my work integrated
programme in my opinion was not able to be as effective as possible,
because with there being no Human Resource Department all
managers are delegated with the duties of a Human Resource
Department, making it difficult to cope with their managerial duties
and the additional duties of handling conflict procedures, negotiation
processes and other disciplinary hearings, basically they are short
staffed. Job sharing can be helpful in many organisations, however
knowledge management needs to be practiced more in order for the
human resources function to be more effective. Some staff may not
have the necessary skills to deals with this particular area. Having
said that, the skills I witnessed were capable if not formally trained.

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REFERENCES
1.SP Robbins- TA Jungle- A Odendaal- G Roodt Organisational
behaviour( global and southern African persperctive). Pearson’s
education South Africa, copyright (stephen p. robbins- david a-mary
coulter, 2015)
(eric charoux, 2003) (R.ROOSEVELT THOMAS, Jr, 1999).