Die impak van toubaanprogramme op groepseffektiwiteit

[摘要] English: Little is said in the literature regarding the impact of ropes course programmes in South Africa on the effectiveness of the groups that participate in them. With this powerful experiential learning tool at disposal, it is necessary to give participants in this adventure activity clear proof regarding the impact of ropes course programmes on the personal development of the individual and the effectiveness of the group. A ropes course programme has the potential to improve the functioning of groups and simultaneously the productivity of the organisation in which the group finds itself. A hypothesis was formulated on the grounds of this statement, namely that participation in ropes course programmes in group context stimulates certain components of group effectiveness which further lead to the personal development of the individual within the group. Increased productivity in the corporate market demands the functioning of an effective group. In order to establish the effectiveness of the group, certain variables, that are responsible for this effectiveness, were identified in the literature. A variety of programmes are used to enrich, motivate and build a group into an effective group. A tendency of the nineties is adventure-related team building through experiential learning. Adventure-related experiential learning uses the metaphorical transfer between the adventurous experience and the workplace of the individual. For the purpose of this study ropes course programmes as a medium of adventure-related experiential learning were investigated in order to determine what their impact is on the participants as a group and as individuals. As part of the prior investigation questionnaires were sent to the managers of corporations that had already had groups participate in ropes course programmes. This information provided basic guidelines regarding the expectations of the companies and the motivation for participation. As part of the research 150 respondents who had participated in ropes course programmes were involved in the study. Respondents were expected to complete a before and after questionnaire in order to make a comparative study between the before and after measurements possible. During the prior investigation respondents listed the various aspects regarding the current state of the group's effectiveness qualities of the group and the individual in terms of the strong and weak points of the group. The respondents were requested to list their expectations with regard to the programme and identify areas the group would like to improve. Respondents rated the individual and group aspects on the five-point Likert scale according to the standing of these aspects prior the participation in the programme. In the follow-up questionnaire the most positive and negative effects derived by respondents from their participation were identified. The variables that determined effectiveness during the prior investigation were again given to participants for rating in order to determine whether their participation had any impact on the variables of group effectiveness. It appears from the results that the expectations of participants with regard to the programme closely correlated with the positive effects they derived from it. The significance between the variables' mean difference shows that 81.3% of the group variables show a highly significant difference (p<0.01) and 18.8% of the group variables a significant difference (p<0.05). Regarding the individual variables 9l.0% showed a highly significant difference (p<0.01) and the remaining 9.0% a significant difference (p<0.05). These variables that were identified in the literature are being directly addressed by participation in ropes course programmes. On these grounds it can be concluded that the significant difference indicates that the effectiveness of groups is increased by participation in ropes course programmes and the formulated hypotheses can be accepted

[发布机构] University of the Free State