Telecel Zimbabwe is currently the second largest mobile phone network in Zimbabwe, with more than 2 500 000 active subscribers. It is jointly owned by Telecel Globe and the Empowerment Corporation. Telecel Globe is a subsidiary of Orascom Telecom Company, a major international telecommunications company with interests in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North America. The Empowerment Corporation is a Zimbabwean consortium made up of a number of Zimbabwean companies.
Because of this partnership of local and foreign investors and access to training opportunities locally and at other Telecel companies, Telecel Zimbabwe is well placed to keep abreast of the latest technology available internationally and apply it effectively to local conditions. While, as a Zimbabwean company, it gives preference to local expertise in its recruitment policy, it is also able to make use, where necessary, of expertise from other Telecel Globe and Orascom subsidiaries.It has been able to use this combined local and foreign expertise effectively to introduce new concepts to the mobile telecommunications sector in Zimbabwe and bring down the costs of mobile phone communication to make it affordable to ordinary Zimbabweans. Telecel Zimbabwe is committed to providing its customers with high-tech mobile phone products and services at an affordable cost.It has put in place infrastructure to support an array of innovative value added services and invested substantial time and money refining its products and services to ensure they meet the diverse communication needs of the Zimbabwean market and of the highest international standard. Introduction A learning organization is a group of people who have woven a continuous, enhanced capacity to learn into the corporate culture, an organization in which learning processes are analysed, monitored, developed, and aligned with competitive goals.
A learning organization generates knowledge and learning faster than competitors and turns that learning into a strategic advantage to out market, out manage, and outsell competition. A learning organization moves beyond simple employee training into organizational problem solving, innovation, and learning. For instance, at Telecel Zimbabwe when a product is bad, instead of just scrapping it, the employees find the cause of the problem and develop solutions to prevent it from happening again.In a learning organization, the focus is on a company's only appreciating asset-its people.
Telecel Zimbabwe acquires knowledge and innovates fast enough to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing telecommunication environment. Learning organizations create a culture that encourages and supports continuous employee learning, critical thinking, and risk taking with new ideas, it allow mistakes, and value employee contributions, learn from experience and experiment, and disseminate the new knowledge throughout the organization for incorporation into day-to-day activities.According to Peter Senge he defined learning organisation as an organization 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. At Telecel Zimbabwe we believe organisation is not a defined end state. It is the journey, not the destination and this will definitely help in out competing our competitors like Econet and Netone. As Carl Rogers put it ‘we are all in a process of becoming’.
Hence, organisations that embrace learning commit to an on-going process. It would be a contradiction in terms to say ‘We are now a learning organisation – we’ve got the plaque on the wall – what’s our next project?’ Leaders may think that getting their organizations to learn is only a matter of articulating a clear vision, giving employees the right incentives, and providing lots of training. This assumption at Telecel Zimbabwe is not merely flaw edits risky in the face of intensifying competition, advances in technology, and shifts in customer preferences.Telecommunication Organizations need to learn more than ever as they confront these mounting forces of competition. Each company must become a learning organization. The concept is not a new one at Telecel Zimbabwe.
It flourished in the 1990s, stimulated by Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline and countless other publications, workshops, and websites. The result was a compelling vision of an organization made up of employees skilled at creating, acquiring, and transferring knowledge.These people could help their firms cultivate tolerance, foster open discussion, and think holistically and systemically. Such learning organizations would be able to adapt to the unpredictable more quickly than their competitors could. Harnesses critical thinking Mayo and Lank 1995 suggest that a learning organisation harnesses the full brainpower, knowledge and experience available to it, in order to evolve continually for the benefit of its stakeholders and the organisation against its competitors.
One cannot doubt what Telecel has so far done by introducing another new service called telecash and due to its convenience to customers we truly believe it’s a rectifying tool to ecocash service. Telecash is currently linked to twenty financial institution and banks whereas ecocash deals with steward bank which is a hundred percent Econet subsidiary Cunningham (1995) warns that the learning organisation has started to degenerate into a general term linked to the idea of more knowledge and competence sharing in organisations. That is not a bad thing but it is far too limited.It does not accommodate Argyris’ case for double and triple loop learning that is an approach which gets people to re-examine and change fundamental beliefs and assumptions which is a big tool being used by Telecel for the sole purpose of increasing market share in the telecommunication industry.
Continuous improvement Learning is essential to provide rapid continuous change, and continuous improvement in organisations. Our competitors in the telecommunication spend sleepless nights trying to come up with an appeasing and satisfying innovative product every second of life so as we do at Telecel Zimbabwe to keep abreast with market trends.Ultimately we as Telecel we are managing to gain market share at the expense of our giant leader Econet since the industry has reached maximum mobile tele- density of fourteen million. At Telecel we don’t actually come up with a new different product but we have adopted what we call a triple loop learning approach whereby we look at our competitors new product, assess , analyse its weakness then we come up with a brilliant better product. Greater motivation At Telecel Zimbabwe the workforce are appreciated for their own skills they possess, values they hold and work they do.All opinions at our organisation are treated equally and with respect and those opinions went through a scrutiny within the decision making board to assess its applicability.
By being aware of their role and importance in the participatory decision making process as a whole in the organisation, the workers are more motivated to "add their bit". This encourages creativity and free-thinking through knowledge sharing, hence leading to novel solutions to problems and thus creating a greater competitive advantage at Telecel Zimbabwe over our competitors.All in all there is an increase in job satisfaction within our workforce The workforce is more flexible In the telecommunication industry the technological changes is an everyday aspect which we cannot do without it. Employees at Telecel Zimbabwe learn skills and acquire knowledge beyond their specific job requirements thus learning organisation.
This enables the workforce to appreciate or perform other roles and tasks outside their job description.The high level of flexibility allows workers to move freely within the organisation, whilst at the same time it removes the barriers associated with a rigidly structured company which was prevailing in the 2008 -2012. It also ensures that any individual will be able to cope rapidly with a changing environment, such as those that exist in modern times and with those kind of employees we are managing to out compete our competitors leading to high profitability. Knowledge sharing “Openness Creates Trust”At Telecel Zimbabwe a team is composed of highly specialised members who cannot and are not expected to know everything about a job. In this case the sharing of common knowledge is quite important for the completion of a job at Telecel Zimbabwe.
Within learning at Telecel Zimbabwe in general, and teams in particular, information and knowledge flows around more freely. This makes for higher productivity within teams and between teams as they build on each other’s strengths. Trust between team members increases and hence they value each other’s opinions more.Employees feel a sense of belongingness when they are well interacted within work members and as a result efficiency and effectiveness arises.
This will enable Telecel to gain an advantage over other organisations like Econet and Netone. Breakdown of traditional communication barriers When there is that advocacy of creating Telecel a learning organisation the old hierarchical communication barrier between manager and worker has devolved into more of a coach-team member scenario. Leaders support the team, not dictate to it and in most cases it is the subordinate who knows exactly what happens on the real ground.The team appreciates this which in turn helps them to be highly motivated. At Telecel Zimbabwe all workers have an increased awareness of the company's status, and all that goes on in other departments.
Communication between and across all layers of the organisation gives a sense of coherence, making each individual a vital part of the whole system. Workers perform better as they feel more a part of the company; they are not just pawns in a game but core players. Thus how telecel gain competitive advantage over others. k Innovation and creativity
