Chapter one

1.0 Introduction
This report is submitted in partial fulfilment of Bachelor of Technology in
Information Technology Degree. It is a collection of daily activities undertaken by
myself, in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) department of
GRAIN MARKETING BOARD. I hope that all activities outlined in the report will aid
the university in assessing my activities and identifying my failures and success.

1.1 HISTORY OF ORGANISATION

The Grain Marketing Board (GMB), the countrys leading grain trade and
Marketing Company was established under the Maize Control Act of 1931. Its
basic responsibilities were to accord producers their fair share of the local and
export markets, to provide them with a guaranteed outlet for their excess
controlled products and to ensure the availability of adequate supplies for the
local demand either from internal production or from exports. It also provide
storage facilities for all types of grains These responsibilities have remained
fundamentally unchanged, although many commodities in addition to maize
have been brought under the control of the Grain Marketing Board.

The Grain Marketing Board is a parastatal directly under the Ministry of

Agriculture. The GMB has a long history that stretches 80 years to the time of the
Great Depression in the 1930s, when there was a slump in the worlds market. At
that time, the colonial government had to intervene in agricultural pricing and
marketing in order to mitigate the serious decline in the producer prices for
maize which had occurred.

GMB was established by an Act of Parliament under the Maize Act on the 5 th of
June 1931.The circumstances which led to its establishment were that maize
production was in excess of the local requirement, and that the domestic prices
had fallen to uneconomic levels. The Board was therefore established to prevent
the collapse of the agricultural industry, by providing the producers with a
guaranteed price and to ensure that adequate supplies were available to meet
local demands whether from internal production or imports.

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However, the role in agriculture of assuring food security, raw material for
industry and employment coupled with agricultural sectors sensitivity to very
low world prices for maize, led to original mandate of the board for successive
years. This culminated in the Grain Marketing Act of 1950 which formally
established the GMB. In 1951 it was renamed Grain Marketing Board through the
Grain Marketing Act .This was done in line with the development that expanded
its portfolio to include edible grains . The edible grains include:

Sorghum

Wheat

Cull peas (Nyemba)

White sorghum

Red sorghum

Millet

Sunflower

Soya beans

Cow beans

Groundnuts

Jugobeans

Sugar beans

Maize

Wheat

Its mandate, to ensure national food security has remained unchanged since its
inception. GMB has been modified from being fundamentally a developmental or
social institution to include being a commercially oriented commodity trading
organisation. This led to introduction of SILO brand of products.

In addition to the above, GMB,s infrastructure that spans the whole country is
used to disburse agricultural inputs to farmers.

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1.2 MISSION STATEMENT

The Grain Marketing Boards mission statement is a clear succinct representation
of the organizations purpose for existence. Hughes (2005:205) defines the
mission statement as a brief statement of the purpose of a company or
organization. GMB uses the mission statement as an advertising slogan with the
intent of keeping and conscientising the stakeholders of the organizations
purpose. The mission statement incorporates socially meaningful and
measurable criteria. Concepts such as the moral ethical position of the Grain
Marketing Board, public image, the target market, products or services, the
geographical domain and expectation of growth and profitability are addressed in
the mission statement. In the case of the organization the primary purpose is to
always uphold the interests of the shareholders and stakeholders. The GMB`s
mission statement is an opportunity to define the organizations business at the
most basic level. The mission statement tells the companys story and ideals:
who and what GMB is, what the organization stands for and why the company
does it. The mission statement addresses issues like does the organization want
to make profit, states the markets that the organization serves and the benefits
offered to them. It also states the need to solve problems for the organizations
customers. Furthermore the mission statement encapsulates the kind of internal
work environment for the employees. Values, mission and vision are elements
that constitute the GMB`s mission statement

i.MISSION

To ensure national food security through the provision of grain related

agricultural products and services efficiently and sustainably.

ii. VISION
To be the first choice provider of grain related agricultural products and services
locally and regionally by 2015.

iii VALUES
Teamwork

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Interdependent task execution through effective communication. Being the

exercise of working together putting away your personal objectives and working
towards attaining group objectives. As the Board it sets aside individual personal
needs in order that GMBs vision mission and objectives may be met.
Integrity
Upholding professional business ethics and promoting eco-sensitive operational
systems. It is a condition of being complete. It is all about honesty. For any
organization or group to function well it should be grounded on being honest with
one another and also to the organization.

Transparency

Being accountable to internal and external stakeholders. This is a state of being

easily understood. As one of the food suppliers in Zimbabwe with competitors
such as National Foods, Victoria Foods, Red seal and other foreign companies
who supply food staff to all households in the region, being easily understood by
all stakeholders is of great importance. It gives a competitive urge over other
companies and it aids in maintaining the confidence between the company and
its stakeholders.
Commitment
Passionate dedication to turn vision into profit through leadership that reward
mastery: is another important value that any company aimed at success has to
have. This is prioritizing company business to our own personal needs. This
entails sacrificing especially time so that the organization grow and succeed.
Commitment done by management and workers has led GMB through 79 years
of success.

Customer Service
Creative quality delivery of healthy relationships that motivate excellence,
innovation and continuous improvement. As the vision says, the household that
are the customers have to be served well so that they come back. Perfect
customer service keeps the customers near thereby aiding as a competitive
advantage that GMB has over other companies.

1.3 GRAIN MARKETING BOARDS OBJECTIVES

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Objectives provide a sense of direction and purpose for the Grain Marketing
Board. The organisation has a strategic position which it is working to
attain.Amstrong (2006:368) asserts that, an objective or goal is a personal or
organizational desired end point in development. It is usually endeavored to be
reached in finite time by setting deadlines. Objectives are similar to goals. The
organisation set a specific ,measurable and time targeted objectives .This is an
effective tool for making progress by ensuring that GMB`s various stakeholders
are clearly aware of what is expected from them, for the objectives to be
achieved. Grain Marketing Boards objectives are of vital importance because
they facilitate the organisation, in focusing its efforts in specific direction.
Objectives are therefore an important tool for GMB since the objectives function
as the Boards regulatory mechanism that acquires an employee and the
stakeholders a certain amount of guidance. The Grain Marketing Board `s
objectives are as follows:

To ensure food security at household level through procurement ,storage

and distribution of the grain in a manner that employs cost effective
logistic strategies

To be a viable institution that supports massive agriculture production for

increased trading in crops value and added products to achieve full
capacity utilization at all depots.

To improve operational efficiency by systematically implementing

comprehensive and strategic supportive corporate governance, finance,
human resources and related administrative systems and processes.
Ensuring orderly marketing of controlled products. A Controlled product is
an agricultural product deemed by the Minister of Agriculture as controlled
in terms of Grain Marketing Act. The product can only be bought or sold in
terms of the Act. Any producer who wishes to dispose of excess production
can only do so through the GMB as prescribed in Statutory Instrument
387of 2001, which makes it an offence for any person who fails to deliver
any controlled product to the Grain Marketing Board within 14 days of
harvest unless he is specifically exempted in writing by the organisation.

To expand commercial business activities through the establishment of

export oriented business activities to generate foreign currency.

To achieve high level of customer satisfaction in all business activities by

engaging all stakeholders as business partners and achieve excellence at
each depot.

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1.4 ORGANOGRAM
Organogram is a diagrammatic presentation of the main tasks and lines of
authority within business organization. According to Robbins S.P (1994:208)
organogram is the framework as expressed by its degree of complexity,
formalisation and centralisation that determines how tasks are divided, grouped
and coordinated. Thus the GMB organogram shows lines of responsibility
between departments of the organization. The organizational structure of Grain
Marketing Board as illustrated below basically centres on its head office in
Harare. The other depots have unclear structures whilst the head office is the
one with a clear-cut structure since all activities are centralized and this is
illustrated by the organogram. The Board has its own Board of Directors who is
directly responsible to the Ministry of Agriculture. The organization is headed by
a General Manager who is answerable to the Board of Directors. Reporting to the
General Manager are four Deputy General Manager that is Deputy General
Manager Finance and Administration, Deputy General Manager-Operations,
Deputy General Manager-Human Resources ( this post was recently introduced
since as illustrated by the diagram below Human resources reported directly to
the general manager) and the Deputy General Manager-Marketing. Deputy
General Manager directly assisted

GMB ORGANOGRAM

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1.5 The Main Stakeholders

As a parastatal , the Grain Marketing Board s main stakeholders include the
ministry of Agriculture , the Government of Zimbabwe , Reserve Bank of
Zimbabwe , millers , farmers and the public.

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1.5.1Ministry Of Agriculture
Its mission is to coordinate and oversee activities of the board in line with the
grain marketing
act chapter 18:14 and debt takeover agreement of june1996

1.5.2The Government of Zimbabwe

To ensure that Grain Marketing Board functions with the provisions of the grain
marketing act 18:14
1.5.3 Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe
To lead in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of policies and action
plans for fighting inflation. Its major function is to ensure that Grain Marketing
Board access financial resources for importation and purchase of grains
especially maize and wheat to ensure food security.
1.5.4 Farmers
To reinvigorate the effective utilization of all land in Zimbabwe and thus arrest
the decline in national productivity.
Generally, the Grain Marketing Board has relatively sound relationship with its
stakeholders since it pursues its objectives to promote enough sufficiency in food
production, satisfy the demand for raw materials from agro-processing industry
and promote agricultural development in the communal areas as a means of
generating growth in the rural economy thereby strengthening food security at
household level.

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1.6 The Organogram for the Information Technology Department

The I.T department falls under the Finance Executive .This means the whole I.T
department is part of the Finance division. The head of the I.T is the I.T Manager;
next in command are the System Analyst. These systems analyst are Material
Management, Sales and distribution and Quality, Financial Controller, Human
Resources and Plant Maintenance/ Fleet Maintenance Business Analyst. Still
under the IT manager is Principal Systems Administrator, Hardware and Network
administrator and Analyst Programmer ABAP. Under the principal administrator
there are two systems administrators whereas the hardware administrator has
two IT technicians and the Analyst ABAP has two programmers. The student falls
under system administrator or IT technician.
1.7 Organisational culture
Organizational culture is the total sum of the values, customs, traditions and
meanings that make a company unique. Corporate culture is often called the

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character of an organization since it embodies the vision of the companys

founders.
Corporate culture describes and governs the ways a companys owners and
employees think, feel and act. Different determinates define corporate culture.
These include beliefs, values, norms, assumptions and management styles. The
Grain Marketing Board corporate culture incorporates both its corporate image
and identity. Corporate identity is expressed through the name, symbols, and a
logo used by the organisation, and the design of communication materials, and is
a factor influencing corporate image of an organization. Corporate image is the
impression of the policies, personnel, and operations of a corporation that is
imparted to its employees and the public.
Corporate culture and identity are clearly noted in the following instances,
displaying of logos on their products, at their varies locations through posting up
of signs with their logo on it, branding of Grain Marketing Board products (Silo) to
build their own identity and market share, use of brochures to label out what
GMB is all about, what it deals with and services it provides, visual records to
keep details like exhibition shows and corporate meetings that take place and
many more ways.

1.7.1 BELIEFS
Opinion, feelings, idea, impression, assessment, notion and judgment that, an
individual or a company perceives. An organizations belief assists it in running its
daily activities in an efficient and proper manner. For instance if everyones belief
was put into consideration, chaos may arise because every one pertains their
own different beliefs. Grain Marketing Board believes in social responsibility and
customer- employee care. Social responsibility is an ideological theory that an
entity whether it is a government, cooperation, organization, or individual has a
responsibility to society at large. The grain marketing board has realized that it is
operating in an environment and not a vacuum. As a result it took part in a lot of
charity programs as a way to fulfil its social responsibility to the communities it is
operating from.

1.7.2 Contributions from individuals

Individual contributions are very crucial as they aid to sustain and maintain the
mission of the organization. GMB encourages individual contributions to keep in

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check its pledges to sustain and maintain its core values, destiny, cause and
calling as it believes that a combination of these enables for the achievement of
its mission statement. Both ministry of Agriculture and the GMB are in support of
this.

Grain Marketing Board values

The values are abbreviated in this manner TITRACOCU
Meaning
T- Teamwork,
I-Integrity
TRA-transparency,
CO-commitment,
CU-customer
Teamwork
This generally entails a sense of unity among individuals or an organization, to
perform a duty involving all of them. It is an aim for every individual in the
organization to meet the goals of GMB. Thus, the workers at GMB strive to work
together for the better running of activities within their organization. Therefore,
no matter position holds in the organization, they are playing a crucial role for
the GMB to function well.

Integrity
This is doing things in honesty without any form of corrupt measures taking
place. It gives the organization a better name out there in the corporate world.
Both management and shop floor workers are encouraged to perform their duties
with integrity. GMB employees are encouraged to perform their duties well
without any unprofessional practices such as avoiding poor service to their
clients, aim at being honest to their clients and stakeholders, and perform duties
to the specific deadlines.

Transparency

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This refers to openness, accountability both the organization and the public. GMB
has to aim to be transparent in all the activities they handle. This enables
efficiency in the running of the organization. Therefore, all transactions that take
place within and outside GMB have to be performed in the most professional
manner; this also covers accounting for every thing.

Commitment
Commitment generally holds a sense of obligation of holding one side of the
bargain. Therefore meaning whatever one has said there have dedicated
themselves to do the have to meet their side of the bargain. Employees should
faithfully commit to the GMBs beliefs in a manner that is beneficial to the
organizations customers and the employees themselves.
GMB holds its commitment to ensure food security regionally by 2012 in high
esteem and all its expansion projects are driven by this desire.

Customer service
This is very crucial for services to run well and for sales to continue to be
generated in the organization. Giving customers proper care and attention assist
the organization to attain a better reputation. Customers preferences are put
first. They have to be attended on time always. Employees need to have
patience when attending to clients to avoid unnecessary disputes arising. A
platform should be given to the customer to air out their views. GMB has to do
this to attain a huge clientele base.

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1.7.3 Norms within the Grain Marketing Board

Norms can be defined as an outcome of the behaviour pattern that is part of the
culture.

The logo above represents the Grain Marketing Board logo. It symbolizes the
need to provide food security both locally and regionally. At the very top of the
logo is a scale, representing a form of measurement. The scale depicts the
grading, quality and best standards of GMB general operations. The shield is a
symbol for protection as noted in war circumstances. At Grain Marketing Board
its symbolic for protection against starvation, the need to defend the nation
from hunger. The antelope represents the origins of the organization, its
strengths in the industry. The logo is very crucial to the Grain Marketing Board as
it gives the organization a form of identity in the industry. This gives GMB a face
and recognition therefore allowing people to easily identity what form trade the
company is dealing with. The logo is found on their products, at the depots and
on their material.

Corporate colours
Colour has a form of way to shout out to people what one perceives about them.
At GMB corporate colors are olive green and gold. Of which these are found on
buildings, letterheads and promotional material.

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Dress code
This is crucial in most organizations as it describes the entity itself. Smart,
professional dressing gives an entity a better more profound name to any
organization. Employee integrity is also defined in the manner one portrays them
self, therefore the way you dress paints a picture in the way you handle things.
Dressing is very important as it creates one to be accepted. Safety clothing at
the company is a top priority and every employee is entitled to wear safety
clothing when entering the silos. Every employee who works in the silos is given
work suit, overall, helmet, safety shoes and nose cap. Workers who work in the
offices are required to put on formal clothing and only to put safety clothing
when entering the silos.

Safety
Grain Marketing Board ensures safety rules are followed and by this every
student who will be on attachment are taught safety rules during their first week
by the training officer. This is to make sure the new students are well informed
and help in reducing accidents at the company. All workers who work in the silos
are required to put on safety clothing like hard hat, overalls, safety shoes and
this is a punishable offense which can lead to dismissal. There is too much dust
in the silos due to maize being processed therefore there is need for employees
to wear protective clothing to prevent them from getting sick.

Security
Grain Marketing Board has got the security department which looks after the
company property. Every employee is given a company ID. There are two gates
used at GMB, one for visitors and one for employees. When entering the
employees gate employees have to sign in for reporting for duty. After working
hours everyone is entitled to be searched by this security personnel to safe keep
the company properties since it is a big institution with a lot of workers. There is
a silo shop which sells different products therefore if employees buy those
products they should produce receipts to the security for them to take the goods
with them. Workers who would have resigned are supposed to be cleared by the
loss control department to avoid confusion and some risks. Personal laptops are
not allowed at GMB. Visitors are to bring national ID and sign in and when
leaving the premises.

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Time management
At Head office work starts at 07:45am to16:30pm from Monday to Friday. If there
is too much work people will have to work overtime until 19:00 hrs. Every worker
is supposed to be at their respective department to avoid accidents no one is
allowed to leave before knockoff time. Workers who come late for work are
marked absent and they will be charged on their salaries. At other GMB depots
work start at 07:00am to 17:00pm from Monday to Friday.

Transparency
Transparency is one of the company culture and they try by all means to make
sure that all activities are open to the management and other parties who are
interested through the internal auditors and hiring of external auditors. Activities
are delegated to the subordinates but accountability still remains in the hands of
the managers.

Ethical issues
Grain Marketing Board is comprised of different races and this is seen by the
large employees of different ethnical backgrounds and races. This mixed cultural
group has so many differences and perceptions about each other but these have
been accommodated at the company and enjoying working together and sharing
different ideas and resolving differences amicably

Gender Equality
Grain Marketing Board is trying by all means to empower women in more
powerful position of decision making. Woman are taking up other professions
which was used to be dominated by man by this it reflects gender equality. For
instance deputy general manager (DGM Finance and DGM Human Resource)
positions are being held by women. Moreover in the silos women are being found
processing the maize and lifting maize bags.
Incentives
Workers are allocated incentives in the form of maize. Workers are allocated a
50kg bag of maize on a monthly basis. It is more of a token of appreciation for
keeping the organization running. The other employees with higher grades are
awarded airtime worth $100 to $200

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Chapter Two
2.0 Nature of industry and industry requirement

Due to the economic hardships we are experiencing here in Zimbabwe the

industry at large is greatly affected. A lot of industrial developments have
affected Grain Marketing Board either negative or positive way.

GMB trades in the Agricultural industry. GMB is involved in the trade of

grain products such as maize, rice, groundnuts. Agriculture is the backbone
of Zimbabwean economy. Our economy is Agro based. GMB is a major
player in the industry that it does virtually everything to set the pace in the
industry. It is practically an all rounder in the industry; for it is involved in
farming, inputs supply, contract farming, grain transportation and storage,
marketing of grain produce, packaging, fumigation services and value
addition. Such inputs include fertilizer, seeds and tillage machines.

The organization is involved in farming; it owns several productive farms in

Mashonaland West and Manicaland. On top of that it also supports farmers
through inputs schemes such as contract farming, inputs loans and
tonnage inputs bonuses. .

Zimbabwe is involved in a mechanization program that GMB is also heavily

involved. The mechanization program seeks to empower new and old
farmers with mechanical equipment. Hence, this means that GMB must
build capacity to handle future mega increase in output. Currently the
GMB has 68 depots across Zimbabwe. In terms of storage GMB has the 2 nd
largest silo storage in the world at Lions Den depot.

Developments

GMB has constructed four bakeries that are currently running at full
capacity. The bakeries are in Marondera, Masvingo, Bindura and Mutare
there are now making silo bread to the satisfaction of society in contact
with the bakeries.

GMB is constructing state of the art stock feeds plant at its Norton depot.
This will go a long way in easing the meat shortages in the country.

GMB has finished the digitalization of all the weigh bridges at its grain
storage depots in Zimbabwe. This will save time in grain transactions.

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The organization is also involved in the computerization of its depots

nation wide.

2.1 Application of information Technology in the Industry

Considering the harsh conditions which Grain Marketing Board is operating in, its
trying at its best not to be left out in the world of technology .Almost each and
every employee at the head office has got one or more computers depending on
number of personnel found in each department. However in other depots in rural
areas like Mvurwi and Binga at least two or more machines will be used for off
line production. There are not many as those in big towns. The production
process involves use of computers hence the need for the ICT department .Since
there is computerisation in each and every department, IT department provides
the bridge between users and the computers.

Weighbridges
These are scales for weighing vehicles and wagons (including train wagons) by
means of a metal plates set into roads or rails.
GMB takes the weights of the trucks as they come in and go out so that
determining the tonnage of the incoming/outgoing grains is made easy. No need
of first packing bulky grains into sacks for weighing since the difference of the
loaded weight and truck weight denotes the weight of the contents. The scaling
software is linked to SAP so that the farmers deliveries are captured direct into
the system. Amount owed to farmers or owed to GMB by the buyer is then
calculated automatically by the system using the buying and selling prices
respectively. Large volumes of grains can be delivered and captured per day as
there are no much manual activities involved.
GMB also provide weighbridge services to externals at a cost.

SAP
This is a systems, applications, products and data processing software. The
software package is used by GMB for all its activities. The software incorporates
all modules for HR, Selling and Distribution, Materials Management, Accounting,
Fleet Management etc. Reports for all these modules are also extracted from the
SAP system. Users are created in the system and they are given different
authorities depending on the nature of their jobs. Those who do purchasing have

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their orders created and printed from SAP. Those who do farmers payments print
the farmers cheques from SAP. Stocks of goods purchased or tonnages of grains
available in the silos are all extracted from the SAP system since all intakes or
outward movements of stocks are first authorized in the system. Depots which
are not on the GMB wide area network process their documents in Excel and then
take the processed documents to their respective provincial offices for the
accountants to upload the data into SAP. This reduced manpower requirements
as there is no more need of taking raw documents to the provincial offices for
data capturing purposes. Transport costs were also cut as the processed
documents and/or summaries are now sent by e-mail to the provinces. Selected
depots which are not of the GMB WAN are connected by means of Econet
dongles.

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Chapter three
3.0 Products and Services
Market its a mechanism that allows people to easily buy and sell products .Grain
Marketing Board offers a wide range of products to the market. Grain Marketing
Board try by all means to meet the demands of the customers because they
believe the customer is the King and want quality products. Below are some of
the products that produced at Grain Marketing Board for different markets
Most of GMB products are controlled by the government. However, it is a fact
that GMB makes profit on all its n on-controlled products that it trades in. Most of
the GMB products trade under the silo brand e.g. silo upfu, silo salt and many
more. Below is a picture of some of the silo products that GMB trades on:

3.1 Commercialisation
This has led to a number of values added products being introduced by the
organization to process the farmers produce into several products under the
brand name SILO.

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In line with the changing socio-economic and political conditions of the Grain
Industry, the GMBs focus has been changed from being fundamentally a
development or social institution, to include being a commercially oriented
commodity trading organization.

3.1.2 Maize Milling Project

The GMB has managed to open milling plants in most of its depots throughout
the whole country with 37 sites already operating. The GMB through its Silo
range of mealie meal which include Silo Upfu, Silo Roller and Silo Refined meal
has managed to take control of 60% of the market share of mealie meal as well
as contributing to price stabilization of the commodity.

The main reason for embarking on the milling project was to

stabilize the market prices for mealie meal.
GMB is aiming at ensuring that every Zimbabwean has the basic food
requirements

The sites that are already operational are approximately 37. The GMB aims to
reach a target of 57 milling plants to match the 57 districts in the country
through the establishment of milling plants in every province.

3.1.3 Rice Packaging Project

The Silo brand of rice is one of the most fast selling commodities in the market.
The product boasts of 55% of the market share of rice and has contributed to
price stabilization in this sector.
3.1.4 Bakeries project
Currently, GMB bakeries are already operating in Marondera, Bindura, Chinhoyi,
Masvingo, Mutare and Hwange depots.
This will provide customers with an alternative and help in stamping out
profiteering by some existing privately owned bakeries.
The Grain Marketing Board is envisaging the establishment of bakeries in every
province in the country.
3.1.5 Flour

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GMB has recently launched a new product in the name of Dely flour. The product
received an overwhelming response from the customers. GMB is looking forward
to making its products a pillar of life in Zimbabwe.

3.2 New products

The Grain Marketing Board is at an advanced stage of introducing new products
in the market.
3.2.1 Paddies Premium rice
This is a new brand of long grain rice named after the name Paddie a field
where rice is grown.
3.2.2Mtarazi water
GMB will be introducing an up market coffee named after Mtarazi Waterfalls, one
of the tallest waterfalls in the world situated in the Eastern part of Zimbabwe.
3.2.3 Other silo products
Besides mealie meal, rice, bread and flour, the other value added products which
are already in the market are Silo sugar beans, Silo popcorn, Silo nyimo, Silo salt
and Silo samp.

3.3 Services
Contract farming: is whereby GMB and a farmer enter into a contract to
produce grain. GMB provides the farmer with inputs and after the season the
farmer sends the produce to GMB. GMB then buys the output at the current
market price. The farmer gets the total revenue less inputs costs provided by
GMB.
Inputs loans: are whereby GMB offers the farmer a loan in form of inputs. After
the stated period the farmer returns the loan in form of cash. The cash will be the
cost of the inputs plus a small interest.
Transportation : GMB has a very large fleet of vehicles that range from the
1tonne pick ups to 30tonne vehicles. GMB helps farmers in transporting their
Agricultural goods. Most of GMB vehicles are used in transporting imported grain
from the neighbouring countries.

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Fumigation: GMB offer fumigation services to farmers that are registered under
the inputs scheme. The service is conducted by trained personnel under the pay
cheque of GMB. All farmers who have supplied grain to GMB qualify.
Poly bag assembly
The GMB has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a Chinese technical
partner to establish jointly establish a poly bag assembly factory. The Grain
Marketing Board has also gone to tender to appoint a consultant to conduct a
feasibility study for the establishment of the factory

3.4 Stock feeds Manufacturing Project

The Grain Marketing Board has set up a stock feeds manufacturing plant at its
Norton Depot. Part of the machinery (90 tonnes) has been purchased and
delivered from South Africa. Currently the plant is at it advanced stage of
establishment and it was made possible by December 2007. Different brands
have been made as prototypes and were displayed at the Harare Agricultural
show and stakeholders and clients were impressed with this development given
the current shortage of stock feeds. Some of the brands include:-

Dairy Concentrate

Beef Concentrate

Layers Concentrate

Layers Concentrate

Pig Concentrate

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Chapter Four

4.0 Expectations and Industrial Reality

The enthusiasm of working for a big organization was my endeavour. When I
joined Grain Marketing Board my desire was fulfilled and being attached to such
a company was a dream come true, and that only came with a number of
expectations. Amongst these were:
To work with modern computers
To work in all three departments found in IT thus hardware dept,
networking and software department.
Working with systems that are being developed by the new programming
languages that are being introduced and current.
Development of new systems or upgrading existing systems
Website development
Participate in team work
Working with users who know basic IT
Applying the programming languages learnt thus PHP,VB6.0 etc
To carry out tasks that i would have full responsibility
Being sent to some refresher courses that has to do with IT
Database programming

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 Exposure of networking and system administration

4.1 Reality
IT for the industry is different from what l expected .My expectations were very
high than the reality and below is what i discovered working in the industry:
Required only to enter the server room with a supervisor only
Programming languages used were VB.Net and Java
Not much development of the system because it was done by external
programmers and students werent allowed to participate in these
programs
Grain marketing Board mainly focuses on hardware, networking and
system administration and very little on programming.
GMB being a government owned company students were not allowed to
have rights to know some of the IT passwords to the server, SAP system
The security system is not up to standard.
Windows XP operating system is used on the company machines and
windows 7 is used on the top management personal laptops.
IT for GMB is centralised and students were mostly assigned duties to
repair hardware.
GMB still uses IBM machines though they are steadily being phased off.
Refresher courses were not attended by students but only the permanent
staff.
Other employees had a negative attitude thus didnt want students to
rectify their problem. They would opt to wait for my supervisor than a
student.
Top management do not want students to attend to their problems.

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Chapter five

5.0 Company and Society connection

Companies have got the social responsibility to help the society in which they are
operating in. It is the duty of the company to say thank you to the people of the
community by helping them in different ways .Grain Marketing Board accepted
this responsibility of giving back to the community.

5.1 Social Responsibility

i.

Education

Basic education is every Zimbabweans right .Grain Marketing Board ensured

that every child in the community have their right to education by providing

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school feels for the under privileged and providing stationery to different schools.
Recently they provided stationery to Kushinga primary school in Mazoe.
Stationery was in form of pens, exercise books and text books

ii.

Housing and Accommodation

Grain Marketing Board has a housing policy. Employees are given stands and the
money is deducted from their salaries. These houses are meant for employees to
occupy a decent home and their families. Stands for GMB employees are situated
in Southly park and Glaudina in Harare. However those employees situated in
other depots besides the head office reside in GMB houses within GMB premises
or other houses in the nearby community.

iii.

Recreation and Entertainment

Grain Marketing Board has got sports club which offer different sporting activities
like football, tennis, basketball, etc. There is also a gym for the society to
exercise in order to stay fit and healthy. Grain Marketing Board has got a football
club which they sponsor and the players are mainly employees within the
company. The sports club is based at Aspindale Depot near Rugare. There is a
football ground which is either used by the employees or the community at large.
People around Aspindale have a beer hall built by GMB which they can relax and
drink beer. Within the same area there is a canteen where employees, the
community at large and people who work within can buy lunch for themselves.

iv.

Health and Safety Issues

Grain Marketing Board has contributed much in ensuring that the community
have access to good health facilities. Grain Marketing board adopted ward 15 in
Marondera General Hospital. They are responsible for everything in that ward
which includes medication and food of patients; hospitality and hospital bills for
the patients On top of that they have Grained (medical aid) for employees. All
employees are required to have a medical aid for him and his family. Grain
Marketing Board also promotes safety amongst its employees by awarding
prizes to each department that scores high marks in housekeeping .Safety
clothing its a must whenever you are entering the silos and the company
provides these safety clothing. The company also helps in keeping the
environment clean by engaging in various environments cleaning. Recently they
took part in the cleaning of Samora Machel Street a program prepared by the
town council

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v.

Transport and Communication Services

Company employees are ferried to and from work by the company bus, this
reduces late arrivals at work. Pick up point for employees are at Gutsai
Supermarket in Kwame Nkrumah Street. Employees who live were the bus
cannot reach are provided with transport allowance. This is done to avoid
employees to come late for work.

vi.

Other Obligations

Grain Marketing Board also takes part in Oasis Zimbabwe in Kambuzuma. It is a

girls home in which girls who were dumped at birth are given accommodation
and education. GMB provides all the products e.g. mealie meal, maputi, rice and
beans for the girls to have a balanced diet. Moreover they also donate food and
clothing to Fredrick Cali cottages were old people are taken care of.

5.2 HIV and AIDS Awareness

The company has an HIV/AIDS policy to guide the management on HIV/AIDS
pandemic. Its main focus is on preventing, mitigation, mainstreaming(increasing
awareness amongst employees) fight discrimination and stigmatization against
People living with HIV and Aids(PLWHA) and provision of care and support.
Fighting discrimination and stigmatisation:
There shall be no discrimination or stigmatization of employees living with HIV
and Aids on the basis of our perceived or real HIV and AIDS status. The
discrimination may be witnessed in the following:
Promotion
Transfers
Access to training
Handling of disciplinary cases
Recruitment and termination
Testing for employment.

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Moreover they shall be non termination of contract if one is tested positive

unless he or she is no longer fit for normal duty. Grain Marketing Board provides
the following:
o

Visits to an employees home to advice on issues of home based care and

general health in and around the home.

Assist once in facilitating access to home based care and health personnel

Chapter six
6.0 Work Related Assignments
Network configuration
Network configuration is setting up a computer so that it can access the Local
Area Network (LAN) and internet. When configuring a network there has to be an
IP address (Internet Protocol) and the proxy server address or gateway.
The IP address is different from computer to computer thus it uniquely identifies
each computer from other computers on the network. An IP address also allows a
computer to access other computer on the network. There are two different
types of IP addresses which are those that can access the internet and the local
area network and are able to download files and those that access the internet
but are unable to download files.

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The gateway allows computers to access the internet and this is the same in
each computer.
In the Local Area network computers are grouped so that they can be easily
identified, thus putting them in workgroups.

At Grain Marketing Board most computers have access to the Local Area
network. To configure a network on a computer I would assign an IP address and
a gateway or proxy server address. To do this one would select control panel,
then network connections then local area connection. Under the general
tab we select properties then double click internet protocols. When you
reach this stage either you assign manually or it assigns automatically.

Operating system installation

At Grain Marketing Board most computers use Microsoft windows XP and window
7. Users are very sceptical about using Windows 8. I was taught how to install
the operating system using CDs and also to partition a computer hard drive while
installing the operating system.
This was not so challenging because I could do the installation on my own from
the day I was taught.
I learnt that when installing an operating system from any other external drive
besides the hard drive, the boot priority must be set to have the first boot
priority of that device. For example when installing an operating system from the
CD, the first boot priority must be the CD-ROM. This is done because when a
computer is booting it checks first the device that is set as its first boot priority, if
there is no device it goes on to the next boot priority. If the hard drive is to be
partitioned, I had to partition before selecting the option for installing.

Microsoft Windows 7 installation

This operating system is not difficult in terms of installing. The operating system
has an option of formatting a hard drive and partitioning the hard drive during
the process of installation. To install windows 7 I would reboot the computer
using a bootable CD and enter into setup to select the CD ROM as the first boot
priority and exit setup after saving changes:
The computer will begin to load the system files and upon completion I would
select the option for installing the operating system. Before the operating system
has been installed I would back up the data and then format the hard drive to

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delete all the files in it and partition it if necessary. After these procedures the
installation will start. There is also the option of installing a new copy of windows
while preserving the data on the machine. The data is saved under windows old.
When the installation is done I would remove the CD so that the computer will
boot from the operating system installed on the hard drive.
When a computer has a new operating system there will be no Microsoft Office
packages, antivirus and any other data. I would install the Microsoft office
packages which include Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint. The version of the
Microsoft Office package to be installed depends on whether the machine was a
thirty two bit word machine or sixty four bit word machine. Microsoft Office 2010
could install on thirty two bit word machines but Microsoft Office
I would also install an antivirus that is compatible with the RAM of the computer.

Setting up an email account

For an email account to be created it has to be approved by the administrator
first and he or she is the only one who can setup that email account.
At Grain Marketing Board we use Microsoft Outlook to setup accounts for users.
To setup an email account I would get the approval of the Administrator. The
following would be done :

Log in as root
Type command useradd<username> press enter
Type command password<username> press enter
This prompts in for user password. It also prompts for the confirmation/ retyping
the password.
If its correct then its done.

Scheduling of Back up
This is the procedure done when scheduling for back up:
Start- run- telnet 190.0.1.9 this prompts for username and password

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Enter username and password (user is root)

Switch user to ORAPRD by typing command su oraprd( you will now be

logged into the production database)

After getting the database type brbackup u / -q(this is a user query to

check the tape volume which is needed for the backup

NB take note of the volume number as it will be requested in later stages

Type brbackup i force v PRDB(the tape volume)

To schedule the back up type command: brtools(this gives you a screen

with a number of options to choose the required in our case its option 4)
this can be seen below

Press enter after selecting four

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On screen 2 choose option1 and press enter

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On screen 3 choose three and enter

Type tape volume number

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On screen 4 choose 5 and enter

Enter user name and password

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On screen 5 type C and enter

Type c (to continue) on the next screen until back up starts

Slaving a hard drive

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At Grain Marketing Board we usually slave a hard drive when we want to scan or
perform a backup so that we can reinstall an operating system or when the hard
drive is not opening on its original computer.
To slave a hard drive I would read the hard drive instructions when one wants to
make it a slave and these instructions are written on the hard drive. To make it a
slave the jumper on the hard drive has to be on the slave position that is written
on the instruction.

Resetting a switch
Sometimes when a certain group of computers that are connected to a certain
hub are failing to access the LAN and the internet usually the problem will be
with the switch.
To solve this problem I would check if the hub is on thus it will be showing green
lights. If the lights are on I would switch it off and on again and check if there are
any fly lids that are not connected and connect them. After I have done this I
would check if the computers are able to see other computers on the network.
If all these connections are done the computers must be able to access other
computers on the network if the problem persist it means there is a technical
problem

Removing a virus that affect boot sector

I removed virus from

windows XP boot sector

a) Windows XP

A boot sector virus most of the times cannot be removed by an antivirus so I

would search for a solution from the internet.

To remove a boot sector virus from a computer with windows XP I would replace
the boot sector with a new boot sector.

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This is done by using the following method

Boot from a an XP CD

Enter setup and then I would choose to repair using recovery

console this will take me to DOS

In DOS I would type a command fixmbr , a message will be

displayed asking me if am sure that I want to replace the
boot sector with a new one and I would accept

I would then type fixboot and also accept to replace the boot
sector with a new one.

When am through I would type exit and this will reboot the
computer.

When the computer has finished rebooting I would update my antivirus and scan
the computer to finish removing the virus which is not in the boot sector or mbr.
Configuring a new pc
This procedure is done before a new PC is sent to its respective user.
Check for software

Check to see if all power cables are there, connect them to the machine

Switch on, to check the software loaded. A pop up wizard automatically

appears where you need to set up the internet, emails, dates, time zone,
network connections etc.

Follow instructions from this wizard until you are through.

Sending icons on desktop

CLICK ON START:

You will see My Network Places, My Computer and My Documents, right

click on each of them and tick SHOW ON MY DESKTOP

Driver installation
This is similar to operating system installation so it was not that difficult. A driver
is a software program that is used by a computer to identify any hardware that is
connected to it.

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There are a lot of drivers that can be installed on a computer for it to recognise
any hardware that are connected to it.
Most of the drivers that I installed are printer drivers and a few sound, network
and VGA drivers. Drivers difference depends on the Computer type for example
HP computer uses hp drivers and Acer computer uses Acer drivers meaning that
for any hardware that is connected to an Acer computer it means the driver for
that hardware must be an Acer driver.
To install I would follow the steps on the installation procedure. I installed drivers
if ever there is any hardware that needs to be connected to a computer or that
the computer is not recognising.

Rebuilding Computers
There were times when we were required to rebuild machines. These machines
will have none working mother boards, power supply units, crushed hard disk
drives etc. The greatest challenge was on installing the mother boards. These
were of inferior quality (Winsonic mother boards) an would not start up of display
anything on the monitor if there is a slight contact with the chassis. For this
reason, a lot of insulation between the motherboard and the mounting had to be
put. The whole process involved putting the motherboard in place and securing
it tightly to the chassis whilst ensuring that there is no contact between the
motherboard and the chassis. I would then mount the power supply unit and the
hard disk drive. Ensuring that the right power lead is connected to the right
socket was quite easy because the cables will only fit where its supposed to be
connected to. After affixing the power supply unit I will then connect the hard
disc drives which were mostly of SATA type. The motherboard would come with
no RAM chips so I would make sure I place at least five hundred and twelve mega
bytes of RAM on each machine. A cooling fan also had to be installed. The rebuilt
machine is now ready for testing.

Chapter seven

7.0 Personal and Professional development

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The year that I have been exposed to the working environment has opened me
up and left a perfect and unblemished picture of what one ought to be if they are
to be successful in their business domains. It made me realise the untapped
talents that exist within me and those strengths that I have in me. Unfortunately
where strengths exist one is bound to have some weaknesses but hopefully
some of them have been addressed in this year of practical work environment.
After all a problem discovered is half solved.

PERCIEVED STRENGTHS:
Decision making
During my first days of work related learning at Grain Marketing Board l did not
want to get involved in decision making as I was still trying to understand the
organisational politics. With each passing day l gained confidence to make right
decisions in times of crises when they is no one to consult because everybody
will be busy with their work. My previous work experience in private
organisations (The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe and Quton Seed Company)
were handy. I had to come to terms with parastatal mentality of leaving the
important aspects of work too late as I got my other workmates in trouble after
highlighting that a certain critical job has not yet been done. The urgency of
work is just not there in the parastatal as compared to private companies.

Good Communication Skills

Working in the IT department at Grain Marketing board involves interacting with
different users with different IT background .I managed to develop good
communication skills which allowed me to communicate with different users and
understand their problems and try to help them in a manner they will
understand. They was also a two way communication channel between me and
my supervisor, this helped me a lot to develop in communicating. Most of the
faults were reported through telephone and this helped me in developing good
telephone skills

Time Management
Time is a precious tool in the industry and during my work related learning period
l managed to develop a good skill of time management. I made sure that l
arrived early at work to plan my work for the day. Working in the IT department
involves being assigned a lot of tasks at the same time and l tried by all means

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in order to finish my tasks in stipulated time so that l dont delay other peoples
work.

Self-Motivation
The need to learn new things that are found in the industry were the selfmotivator .You finds sometimes what you learn at college is different from the
reality. Different programming languages used here like VB. Net, Java and other
different systems used motivated me, hence the need to learn.

Stress Management
Grain Marketing board is a big organisation with so many departments. In these
departments they are so many users of computers and it was a challenge as a
student to work with them because some of them have no confidents in students
.Misunderstanding are always common with the users and during my period of
work related learning l managed develop the skill on how to handle such conflicts
with users and find a solution to the problem.

Ability to Adapt to Change

The IT industry is so dynamic and they are a lot of changes that happen every
day. I can safely say l was able to adapt to new softwares that are being
introduced on day to day. Some of the software that l had a chance to work with
are the operating system windows 7 and Microsoft office 2010,l managed to
master quickly on how to use them and l did not have any problem in using
them.

Confidence
Confidence enabled me to do all the tasks that would have been assigned to me
and meet the required objective. The availability of internet boosted my
confidence since l was able to research any problem and find the solution. This
helped me to produce good result and do my work without any fear of a difficult
task. The organisation built in me a sense of confidence in the way I carry myself
around and the way I handle situations. It has taught me that crisis situations can
be triggered worse by lack of confidence and panic. Also the mere thought of
being entrusted with privileged information contributes highly to self esteem.
Finally the support I was given by my colleagues and supervisors raised my
spirits and sense of confidence.

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Sharing of Resources
Grain marketing board has got limited resources, so l developed the ability to
share the little resources that are available with other for the benefit of the
company in order to meet the required objectives and help the company to grow.

Responsibility
During my work related learning l was working under minimum supervision and l
was responsible for the outcome of any task that would have been assigned to
me .Given responsibility made feel being part of the organisation

Planning, Prioritisation and Tracking

Through planning the tasks that would have been allocated to me by my
supervisor ,l had to make a choice which task should start first according to the
importance and urgency .They were other tasks that l would make a follow up
and see the performance, and do the changes whenever necessary .
Discipline
I did maintain a good reputation as a disciplined person who could humble
himself in front of respectable people. I tried to be presentable at all times even
in times of economic hardships.
I never absconded from work and attended to my duly assigned duties with such
diligence expected of me. I did not at any time become involved the
organisational politics neither was I warned of inapt and incompetent behaviour.
Reliability
It is in this year that I grasped the importance of being dependable. In the
section that we worked in, all important data used for decision making purposes
passed through it and any assigned tasks had to be thoroughly prepared
otherwise it would prove to be fatal to the nation at large. In this regard one has
to be highly agile and I had to quickly adapt and prove my inherent
temperament of determination.

Professional competence

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As a member of the Grain Marketing Board family I was taught how to uphold the
ethics of a professional and consummate with this view the organisation gave me
the opportunity to get knowledge from my superior who would have attended
some training courses.. I also learnt that being honest on your capability to carry
out a task helps in upholding your competence as a professional.

Teamwork
I managed to witness and experience the strength of teamwork when I was in the
organisation. I managed to relate well with other staff from the various divisions
of the organisation.

Thoroughness
Due to the nature of data that one works with in the research and development
thoroughness is required in every aspect. Wrong data could lead to wrong
decisions and advice and this could backfire on the systems analyst and the
programmers and decision makers. In regard of this a certain degree of
carefulness and thoroughness is required and the Authority has managed to
instill a habit of thoroughness even in the way I handle minor things.

Objectivity
It was taught to me that if one is to become successful in their domain one
should perform his or her duties with honesty and straightforwardness. I
managed to act with impartiality and commendable honesty in carrying my
duties. Lack of objectivity could lead to a prejudiced and skewed decision that
could plunge the whole decision making process into oblivion.

Anger management/ Control

I managed to nurture myself to accept constructive criticism and advice.
Previously I could easily misconstrue criticism as a personal attack on my work or
personality. There are times when I felt my work was being disapproved even if
this was open but I managed to learn to correct even the unsaid mistakes and
the culture of thoroughness also helped a lot. Now I can easily seek clarification
where I dont understand and correction where I have failed without fear of being
rejected.

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WEAKNESSES:
Perfectionist
I discovered that I was a bit of a perfectionist and this tended to affect me
adversely. The end result was I would sometimes want to do all things by myself
not trusting my colleagues and probably criticizing their methods without
attempting to try them. This perfectionist bit made me apprehensive on criticism
even to constructive advice.

Entrance
The principal weakness at the start of my work related learning was that l was no
so comfortable to be introduced as a student because of my age. However l
managed to overcome this weakness with the help of my colleagues whom l was
working with.

Being a Student
Being a student made it quite difficult to be involved in some of the IT
departmental tasks .This measure is however justifiable because of the
sensitiveness of the other tasks .The other tasks were done under close
monitoring but with time they started to have trust in me and some of the
sensitive tasks were assigned to me.

Impatience
Generally I like things that eventually come to an end and on most times when
doing repetitive work I tended to be impatient. Also when I was faced with
challenges that I could not effectively deal with I tended to be on the offensive
and sometimes would leave those challenges unattempted without wish to retry
again.

Impulsiveness
When I started my placement it was a little bit late so I was so full of zeal that, I
was rather very hasty in carrying my duties wanting to impress. I was
unnecessarily quick to do my duties without even considering the feasibility of
doing such and the resources available.

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Quietness
Generally Im a quiet person but now coupled with the skeptism of fitting into an
organisation as big as Grain Marketing board let alone the abhorrent thought of
making a mistake that could let down decision makers made it only worst. This
mode I had set for myself made it uneasy for me to settle quickly though it can
not be discounted for purposes of observation of staff culture. My quietness also
made it difficult for me to express myself and persuade especially even when I
could see grim errors/consequences.

Chapter Eight

8.0 Handling conflict between personal and organizational objectives.

Usually you find out that the aims of work related learning are different with the
company policies .This will lead to a conflict between personal objectives and
company objectives .The program l am studying requires me to have knowledge
in networking, hardware and software, but the organisational structure at Grain
marketing Board does not allow this because IT is seen as a private issue since
this is a parastatal. Students are allowed to have full exposure in the hardware
department. When it comes to networking especially, when monitoring networks
of different depots no student shall carry out the task and no passwords are to be
given to the student.
Moreover students are not allowed to attend any training courses unless the
General manager says so. They is an issue of filling an IT request form by the
user before troubleshooting .Some of the users are a bit reluctant to fill this
form .The IT form is there to avoid conflicts that the user can blame me for
causing more problems to their machines. So to avoid this l make sure the form
is filled before troubleshooting.

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The programming languages used at Grain Marketing Board are Java and Vb.net
they are not Morden. In his case l found myself in conflict with the organisation
because l have to learn both the languages used at Grain Marketing Board at the
same time research on the current programming languages that are being
introduced since IT is dynamic hence the need to move with time. The only way
to solve this conflict was to learn the programming languages used at Grain
Marketing Board at the same time researching on the new languages that are
being introduced to the world.

Conflicting issues came when configuring IP addresses on the machines of users.

At Grain Marketing board some of the IP addresses are limited not to access
internet in order to avoid congestion and employees neglecting work due to face
book .Some of the users will argue with me, that I am denying them their right
to access internet and enjoy company resources ,but they was nothing l could do
except to follow the procedures l would have been told by my superiors.

They was also conflicting issues when a new problem pop up, the users will be
exerting too much pressure on me, not giving me time to research , but on this l
would always thank my supervisor for standing by me during the time of
research

During my first days private business was quite an issue for me there were times
when I had to do stuff of my own during supposed work time but however with
my acquired time management skills I managed to overcome this issue. I also
managed to steer from the course of conflict of interest by taking time to study
the Grain Marketing Board code of conduct and ethics, this booklet was designed
to make sure that private interest were not put first at the expense of
organisational goals.

During my work related learning period l got the opportunity to learn more about
the industry, through practical implementation of theoretical study, sharpen
analytical skills, time management skills and some of the skills that l will mention
later .I managed to have an insight of what business is and what is needed and
develop the skills that will help my career in future. Some of the skills that l
developed are listed below:

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Chapter nine

Key skills developed

(a)Time Management skill
Time management involves organising and planning the given tasks. I managed
to develop this skill because Grain Marketing Board is a large organisation and a
lot of tasks will be assigned. I had the ability to complete all my assigned tasks in
time on daily basis, because of the skill (time management) l have developed.
This skill was a success because l was copying from my supervisor on how he
manages his time.

(b)Troubleshooting Skill
On day to day basis l was working with users who would encounter different
problems and l was the consultant to solve their problem. Troubleshooting is
solving the users problem; hence l gained this skill since l was solving different
problems every day.

(c)Communication Skills

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During my attachment period l was interacting with different peoples either

verbal or orally. Interacting with different people enable me to have confidence
and improve my communication skills. Since most of the time users would report
their problems through the telephone l developed my verbal communication skill.

(d)Personal Management
During my attachment period l developed a skill to manage myself by being
punctual to work, because for you to be able to plan and organise your tasks you
have to come early. Proper personal management enables one to have
confidence, complete tasks in time and being able to take responsibility without
hesitation.
(e)Team Work
Working in IT department involves coordinating with other employees in order to
complete tasks at hand and they are other problems which need to consult other
employees so l managed to fit in well working as a team. I also learnt that each
team player is equally important like everyone else in the team and there is need
to demonstrate skills that improve team effectiveness for example negotiation
,compromise, consensus building , conflict management, shared decision making
and goal setting.

(f)Research
Since IT is dynamic you have to continue researching for new things .Also during
day to day running of the business you meet new problems and you have to
research for the solution on the internet and books . Through researching no task
was impossible a solution was always found and the required result was met.

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Chapter ten
Re entry
After the completion of my work related leaning I have developed into a
different person with different needs upon re-entry. The one-year Industrial
Placement has been fruitful and an eye-opening experience as it has greatly
helped me to develop personal and interpersonal skills, enhancing selfmotivation, analytical skills, subject knowledge and subject-specific skills and
provided an insight into what makes businesses survive.

Before work related learning I relied more on what I was taught by the lectures
and didnt do much to develop myself as an IT student, and an individual. But
during my Work-Related Learning period I was expected to fend for myself, so to
speak. This meant if there was something I didnt know or did not fully
understand the onus was on me to do my own research that is I had to be selfmotivated to improve myself. This is one of the many things I think is required of
a student in final year.

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Having been widely exposed to extensive research and being able to work under
pressure and still produce required results; I shall be able to tackle my fourth
year with great caution and determination. Furthermore, I will also be able to
relate most of the fourth year modules to the knowledge and experience I
acquired during the Industrial-Attachment period. To a larger extent, I strongly
believe that this shall make my learning process enjoyable and easier; as I shall
be in a better position to give highly technical and practical examples to specific
modules that I shall be doing.

I expect the main objective of my final year is that learning new things that will
allow me to become an even more marketable individual when I re-enter the
industry, this of course being done, on the foundation of all the things that Ive
learnt during my Work-Related Learning period of what it takes to survive in the
real world.

Over and above, the ultimate goal on re-entry to university for the final year, is
to articulate and convert my wealth of experience into better passes; become
more focused and committed to both curriculum and non-curriculum activities as
compared to my previous first two years in college.

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Chapter eleven
Conclusions and recommendations
The attachment period has given me more experience on the practical side.
Through the practice of practical task I got to understand my theory better also I
learnt new things even those that are not in line with my course of study.

I also improved my communication skills through interaction with different types

users. I have grown to love my profession through this industrial attachment
because I could see and do things in a more practical way and this made me
understand better.

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Recommendations

There is limited security on computers in that the users login as

administrators such that they can do any changes to computer
settings and this creates many problems most of the times.
Because some changes will affect the performance of the computer
and hence will require the IT department to solve the problems. To
avoid some of these problems I would suggest that every user will
be logged on with no administrator privileges such that no changes
will be made by the user.

There should be another way a user should inform the IT

department of a fault in the event that the telephones are not
working. This can be done by the use of a Fault Login system on
which the user will enter a fault and the IT department will check
with the system if there is any fault that has occurred. Also a chat
can be of help if the problem can be solved without the IT staff
going to the user or the computer being brought to the IT
department for repair.

Refresher courses for users to increase their appreciation for

computers. These refresher courses can be held in two types:

(a)Refresher courses for secretaries on application that they use in order to

increase their levels of computer literacy.

(b)Refresher courses for all users on how to reduce the threat of virus and other
possible damages to computers.

They is need for fully computerisation of the organisation and

dispose off all old computers.

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 New machines and software should start to be implemented in the

IT department then spread the implementation to any other
departments

They should be machines, keyboards and mouses set aside for

training such that when there is an impromptu training people wont
have stress to where to find the machines.

There should be greater utilisation of Desk Top Connection when

trouble shouting machines in remote sites. This would greatly lower
travelling expenses

Conclusion
The experience gained during my Industrial Attachment at Grain Marketing Board
has been an eye-opening experience. It provided me with the opportunity to get
a taste of a typical Information Technology working environment, with its high
emphasis and strong bias on hands-on experience. Great co-operation with the IT
team members facilitated a healthy exchange of ideas and views, and promoted
a great teamwork.
However, there were times when research was futile, users impatient and ideas
were not coming; these were the times when patience and perseverance was
building-up and thinking was most draining. On the other hand, when times were
better, success was sweet and threw us to greater heights.
In a world where employers want their graduates to be the most useful to the
organization; the wealth of experience I have gained during my attachment, fills
me with great confidence for the future.

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