Saturday, April 27, 2013

(1) Discuss the legislation that governances the tobacco industry, in brief?


(1)   Discuss the legislation that governances the tobacco industry, in brief?

The Collective Bargaining Agreement of Tobacco Industry (SI 322 of 1996) the Tobacco Industry Code of Conduct is an important SI which governs the labour relations between the employee and the employer in the Tobacco Sector. The Code of Conduct stipulates the disciplinary system at the workplace, grievance and disciplinary procedures, definitions of labour offences at various levels of seriousness that might be committed by both workers and the management and above all outlines the responsibilities of workers committees, works council and the Employment Council in the disciplinary and grievance process. However the SI was made and entered into in terms of the Labour Relations Act (chapter 28:01) as amended at the 30th of December 2005 this is the principal piece of legislations governing employment relations outside government service.  It covers both individual and collective labour law and in terms of section 3 of the Act, it implies to “all employers and all employees except those whose conditions of employment are otherwise provided for under or by the constitution”.

The Labour Relations Act outlines some of important Acts not enshrined in Code of Conduct for instance the National Social Security Authority Act (Chapter 17:04) the Act provides the framework for social security with two main schemes: a pension scheme and an Accident Prevention and Workers Compensation Scheme. Also there is the National Code of Conduct is laid down in section 3 of SI 15/2006 to provide guidance on procedural and substantive fairness and justice on disciplinary at the workplace.  The objectives are derived from those set out in the principal Act (The Labour Act), viz, that is of advancing social justice and democracy in the workplace including promoting fair labour standards, the just, effective and expeditious resolution of disputes and protection of employees from unfair dismissal.  The objectives reflect a strong imprint of the International Labour Organisation standards.

Above allthe supreme law of the land which is our constitution also governs the conduct in the Tobacco Industry it has certainprovisions which are relevant in labour law, such as the protections in sections 20 and 21 of the Bill of Rights.  These sections protect freedom of expression and freedom of association and assembly, which are important in delineating the legal framework of trade unions.Collective Labour law involves freedom of association and the right to organise          collective bargaining and dispute settlement. The right to form or join or participate in the activities of a trade union is protected by both the Constitution of Zimbabwe (section 21) and the Labour Relations Act.  It must be emphasised, however, that this right has not always            been available to all workers in Zimbabwe



(2)   What is a learning organization is it important discuss.

According to Peter Senge (1990: 3) learning organizations areorganizations where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is  set free, and where people are continually learning to see the whole together. For Peter Senge, real learning gets to the heart of what it is to be human. We become able to re-create ourselves. From this l learnt that learning organization is not about an individual but its collective aspirations that are nurtured to achieve and set goes they desire.

The five that Peter Senge identifies are said to be converging to innovate learning organizations. They are:
(i)Systems thinking(ii) Personal mastery(iii) Mental models(iv) Building shared vision(v) Team learning

The core disciplines
Systemic thinking is the conceptual cornerstone (‘The Fifth Discipline’) of his approach. It is the discipline that integrates the others, fusing them into a coherent body of theory and practice. A ‘discipline’ is viewed by Peter Senge as aseries of principles and practices that we study, master and integrate intoour lives. The five disciplines can be approached at one of three levels:
Practices: what you do.
Principles: guiding ideas and insights.
Essences: the state of being those with high levels of mastery inthe discipline (Senge 1990: 373).Each discipline provides a vital dimension. Each is necessary to the others iforganizations are to ‘learn’.

Personal mastery. ‘Organizations learn only through individuals who learn.Individual learning does not guarantee organizational learning. But withoutit no organizational learning occurs’ (Senge 1990: 139). Personal mastery isthe discipline of ‘continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision,of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing realityobjectively. It goes beyond competence and skills, although itinvolves them. It goes beyond spiritual opening, although it involves spiritual growth. Mastery is seen as a special kind of proficiency.It is not about dominance, but rather about calling. Vision is vocation ratherthan simply just a good idea.People with a high level of personal mastery live in a continuallearning mode. They never ‘arrive’.
Mental models.These are ‘deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations,or even pictures and images that influence how we understand the worldand how we take action’ (Senge 1990: 8). The discipline of mental models starts with turning the mirrorinward; learning to unearth our internal pictures of the world, tobring them to the surface and hold them rigorously to scrutiny.It also includes the ability to carry on ‘learningful’ conversationsthat balance inquiry and advocacy, where people expose theirown thinking effectively and make that thinking open to theinfluence of others. (Senge 1990: 9).

Building shared vision. Peter Senge starts from the position that if any oneidea about leadership has inspired organizations for thousands of years, ‘it’sthe capacity to hold a share picture of the future we seek to create’ (1990: 9).Such a vision has the power to be uplifting – and to encourageexperimentation and innovation. Crucially, it is argued, it can also foster asense of the long-term, something that is fundamental to the ‘fifthdiscipline’.When there is a genuine vision (as opposed to the all-to-familiar‘vision statement’), people excel and learn, not because they aretold to, but because they want to. But many leaders havepersonal visions that never get translated into shared visions thatgalvanize an organization.The practice of shared vision involves the skills of unearthingshared ‘pictures of the future’ that foster genuine commitmentand enrolment rather than compliance. In mastering thisdiscipline, leaders learn the counter- productiveness of trying todictate a vision, no matter how heartfelt. (Senge 1990: 9)

Team learning. Such learning is viewed as ‘the process of aligning and developing the capacities of a team to create the results its members trulydesire’ (Senge 1990: 236). It builds on personal mastery and shared vision –but these are not enough. People need to be able to act together. Whenteams learn together, Peter Senge suggests, not only can there be goodresults for the organization; members will grow more rapidly than couldhave occurred otherwise.

Bibliography

The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization (1990)

Munyaradzi Gwisai -Labour and employment law in Zimbabwe, 2006

Labour Relations Act (Chapter 28:01) and various regulations

Statutory Instrument 15/2006 (Labour National Employment Code of Conduct Regulations, 2006)