(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)
