Generic Management

Purpose:

This qualification is intended for junior managers of small organisations, junior managers of business units in medium and large organisations, or those aspiring to these positions. Junior managers include team leaders, supervisors, foremen and section heads.

The focus of this qualification has been designed to enable learners to be competent in a range of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values including:

• Gathering and analysing information.
• Analysing events that impact on a business and its competitive environment.
• Complying with organisational standards.
• Motivating an individual or team.
• Negotiating in a work situation.
• Understanding the role of business strategy as it applies to junior management.
• Managing the budget within a specific area of responsibility.
• Applying management principles and practices within a specific area of responsibility.
• Managing work unit performance to achieve goals.
• Behaving ethically and promoting ethical behaviour in a work situation.
• Demonstrating understanding of the consequences in a work unit of HIV/AIDS.

The learners who achieve this qualification will be able to demonstrate competencies in management relating to Planning, Organising, Leading, Controlling and Ethics. Overall, this qualification will ensure that learners are capable of:

• Developing plans to achieve defined objectives.
• Organising resources in accordance with a developed plan.
• Leading a team to work co-operatively to achieve objectives.
• Monitoring performance to ensure compliance to a plan.
• Making decisions based on a code of ethics.

Rationale:

This qualification lays the foundation for the development of management qualifications across various sectors and industries. It specifically develops management competencies required by learners in any occupation, particularly those who are currently operating as junior managers. The qualification introduces key terms, rules, concepts, principles and practices of management that will enable learners to be informed managers in any occupation. It has also been developed to enable managers or prospective managers to access higher education and provide flexible access to life-long learning.

The scope of management covers four domains: leadership, self-management, people management and management practices. This qualification addresses each of these domains with generic competencies, thereby enabling learning programmes to be contextualised for specific sectors and industries. Provides opportunities for people to transfer between various specialisations within management. This will therefore enable management competencies to be strengthened, and enable managers to better manage systems, processes, resources, self, teams and individuals in various occupations. It is intended to empower learners to acquire knowledge, skills, attitudes and values required to operate confidently as individuals in the South African community and to respond to the challenges of the economic environment and changing world of work. Ultimately, this qualification is aimed at improving the productivity and efficiency of managers within all occupations in South Africa.

• Communication at NQF Level 3.
• Mathematical Literacy at NQF Level 3
• Computer Literacy at NQF Level 3.

Recognition of Prior Learning:

This qualification can be achieved wholly or in part through recognition of prior learning in terms of the defined Exit Level Outcomes and/or individual Unit Standards.

Evidence can be presented in various ways, including international and/or previous local qualifications, products, reports, testimonials mentioning functions performed, work records, portfolios, videos of practice and performance records.

All such evidence will be judged in accordance with the general principles of assessment and the requirements for integrated assessment.

Access to the qualification:

Open access, bearing in mind the requirements of ‘learning assumed to be in place’ and that the learner has access to a work environment where management practice can be implemented.

Y

The Qualification consists of a Fundamental, a Core and an Elective Component.

To be awarded the Qualification, learners are required to obtain a minimum of 150 credits as detailed below.

Fundamental Component:

The Fundamental Component consists of Unit Standards in:

• Mathematical Literacy at NQF Level 4 to the value of 16 credits.
• Communication at NQF Level 4 in a First South African Language to the value of 20 credits.
• Communication in a Second South African Language at NQF Level 3 to the value of 20 credits.

It is compulsory therefore for learners to do Communication in two different South African languages, one at NQF Level 4 and the other at NQF Level 3.

All Unit Standards in the Fundamental Component are compulsory.

Core Component:

• The Core Component consists of Unit Standards to the value of 72 credits all of which are compulsory.

Elective Component:

The Elective Component consists of Unit Standards in a number of specializations each with its own set of Unit Standards. Learners are to choose a specialization area and Elective Unit Standards at least to the value of 22 credits.

Administration (Learning Programme ID 58344):

• ID 110003: Develop administrative procedures in a selected organisation, Level 4, 8 credits.
• ID 110026: Describe and assist in the control of fraud in a office environment, Level 4, 4 credits.
• ID 110009: Manage administration records, Level 4, 4 credits.
• ID 109999: Manage service providers in a selected organisation, Level 4, 5 credits.
• ID 15234: Apply efficient time management to the work of a department/division/section, Level 5, 4 credits.
• ID 242812: Induct a member into a team, Level 3, 4 credits.
• ID 13915: Demonstrate understanding of HIV/AIDS and its impact on the workplace, Level 3, 4 credits.
• ID 242820: Maintain records for a team, Level 3, 4 credits.
• ID 242814: Identify and explain the core and support functions of an organisation, Level 3, 6 credits.
• ID 242813: Explain the contribution made by own area of responsibility to the overall organisational strategy, Level 4, 5 credits.
• ID 242818: Describe the relationship of junior management to other management roles, Level 4, 5 credits.
• ID 251960: Identify and describe disaster related risks and threatening situations utilizing basic disaster management concepts and indigenous knowledge, Level 3, 5 credits.
• ID 11473: Manage individual and team performance, Level 4, 8 credits.
• ID 242840: Make oral presentations, Level 4, 2 credits.

Planning
1. Develop plans to achieve defined objectives.

Organising
2. Organise resources in accordance with developed plan.

Leading
3. Lead a team to work co-operatively to achieve objectives.

Controlling
4. Monitor performance to ensure compliance to a developed plan.

Ethics
5. Make decisions based on a code of ethics.

Critical Cross-Field Outcomes:

The learner will be expected to demonstrate the ability to:

• Identify and solve problems and make responsible ethical decisions within own limit of authority.
• Work effectively with others as a member of a team, group, organisation or community to achieve work unit objectives.
• Organise and manage oneself and one’s activities responsibly and effectively to plan, lead, organise and control towards achievement of work unit objectives.
• Collect, organise and critically evaluate information in order to measure performance.
• Communicate effectively using visual, mathematics and language skills in the modes of oral and/or written presentations to lead a team.
• The learner will be required to demonstrate an understanding of the world as a set of related systems by aligning work unit objectives to organisational strategy.
• Be culturally and aesthetically sensitive across a range of social contexts in managing and interacting with diverse people in the workplace.
• Use science and technology effectively in researching, recommending and implementing management solutions, showing responsibility towards the environment and health of others.

Planning

1.

• Information is analysed and presented according to organisational objectives and requirements.
• A plan is developed by using a systematic process.
• Tasks, resources, timeframes and measurement criteria are defined and aligned to meet organisational objectives.

Organising

2.

• Methods, procedures and techniques to organise a work unit are applied in accordance with organisational requirements.
• The activities of the work unit are analysed and adjusted in order to align to the organisational strategies.
• Resources are allocated to achieve the developed plan.

Leading

3.

• The principles of leadership are explained and applied within a work unit.
• The organisation’s objectives and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are analysed in order to determine the direction of work units.
• Knowledge of group dynamics is applied to build a team.

Controlling

4.

• Work unit performance is measured against organisational objectives.
• Corrective action is taken in response to performance variances in accordance with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Ethics

5.

• The concept of ethics is explained in terms of its influence on the activities of a work unit.
• The value of a code of ethics is explained in terms of its impact on decision making.
• Ethical decisions are made in the workplace.

Integrated Assessment:

Integration implies that theoretical and practical components are assessed together. It also implies that learning in different unit standards could and should be assessed in a integrated way where possible. Integrative assessment techniques may be used to assess multiple specific outcomes within multiple unit standards within the learner’s work context. Within each unit standard, the specific outcomes and associated assessment criteria guide the learning process. The assessment determines whether the outcomes have been attained.

Assessments should be flexible and must cater for a wide range of options and contexts. Assessment must be fair, transparent, valid and reliable and should ensure that no learner is disadvantaged.

Assessment of Communication and Mathematical Literacy should be contextually based in accordance with the specialisation and context chosen and applied. Assessment has a formative monitoring function. Formative assessment should be used to assess gaps in the learner’s skill and knowledge level. Its goal is to assess the learner’s competence providing feedback to both learner and facilitator for further learning. It is continuous and is used to plan appropriate learning experiences to meet the learner’s needs. It provides information about problems experienced at different stages in the learning process.

Assessment must also have a summative component. Summative assessment may be used on completion of a unit standard, but should not be the only form of assessment.

A variety of methods must be used in assessment, and tools and activities must be appropriate to the context in which the learner is working. Where it is not possible to assess all competencies in the workplace, simulations, case studies and other techniques should be used to provide a context appropriate to the assessment.