scholarly journals Performance management in the public service with particular reference to the senior management service cadre in South Africa: A perspective

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-205
Author(s):  
Yogi Penceliah

The Performance Management and Development System (PDMS) for the South African Public Service was introduced in 2001,and driven by the transformative agenda to achieve both acceptable levels of service delivery and measurable results. Accordingly, there has been a shift from bureaucratic rules-driven approaches in public service management to a results-oriented approach to government performance. Although the main concern that should underpin the implementation of the PMDS is service delivery; the level of service delivery to date falls grossly short of being delivered at an acceptable level or quality. In this regard, the role of the Senior Management Service (SMS) cadre is critical as it is accountable for service provision and to demonstrate to the public that its needs are being addressed.

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Harry Munzhedzi

Orientation: Performance management plays a pivotal role in the realisation of many facets of public administration, including service delivery, good governance and organisational productivity through setting of performance targets and regular assessments of performance. In search of improved quality and productivity in the public service, the South African government introduced several legislative and policy interventions, including but not limited to the Public Service Act, 1994 (Proclamation 103 of 1994), Public Service Regulations of 2001 and the White Paper on Transforming Public Service Delivery of 1997.Research purpose: The main thrust of this conceptual paper was to explore the relationship between performance management and training in the South African public service.Motivation for the study: The lack of sufficient literature on the relationship between performance management and training. To also prove that the two are inseparably linked, meaning that one cannot exist without the other.Research design, approach and method: This article, which is conceptual in nature, reviewed existing literature on performance management and training in the public service extensively so as to arrive at a definitive conclusion.Main findings: The article contends that as much as training underpins the process of performance management, training is also fortified by performance management. Precisely, there cannot be performance management without training and vice versa.Practical/managerial implications: As much as training is imperative in the management of performance in the public service, such training must be need-based and it must be underpinned by performance management through identification of skills gap in the assessment of performance.Contribution: It is proposed that to enhance the knowledge, capacity, effectiveness and efficiency of the public service performance, needs-based training that seeks to close the skills gap, is developed and adequately implemented.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-45
Author(s):  
Za-Mulamba Paulin Mbecke

Public service management reforms have not yet contributed to poverty eradication and generally socio-economic development of many African countries. The reforms suggested and implemented to date still prove to be weak in addressing the many challenges faced by the public service in delivering goods and services to the population. The failure of the current public service management calls for a consideration of business-driven approaches and practices that facilitate effectiveness, efficiency, competitiveness and flexibility in goods and services provision. The critical social theory methodology and the literature review technique described and raised awareness on service delivery chaos in South Africa. A public service reform that focuses on operations and quality management is one of the ways of improving and sustaining service delivery in South Africa. Operations management is an essential tool for the planning, execution, control, monitoring and evaluation of production processes. Quality management, in the other hand, is essential to ensure best quality of goods and services produced by the public service within acceptable time and available resources to meet or exceed people’s expectations. The operations and quality management framework proposed in this article is a potential alternative to the current service delivery crisis in South Africa.


2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 998-1023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian R. Hodgkinson ◽  
Claire Hannibal ◽  
Byron W. Keating ◽  
Rosamund Chester Buxton ◽  
Nicola Bateman

Purpose In providing a fine-grained analysis of public service management, the purpose of this paper is to make an important contribution to furthering research in service management, a body of literature that has tended to regard public services as homogenous or to neglect the context altogether. Design/methodology/approach Integrating public management and service management literatures, the past and present of public service management are discussed. Future directions for the field are outlined drawing on a service-dominant approach that has the potential to transform public services. Invited commentaries augment the review. Findings The review presents the Public Service Network Framework to capture the public value network in its abstraction and conceptualizes how value is created in public services. The study identifies current shortcomings in the field and offers a series of directions for future research where service management theory can contribute greatly. Research limitations/implications The review encourages service management research to examine the dynamic, diverse, and complex nature of public services and to recognize the importance of this context. The review calls for an interdisciplinary public service management community to develop, and to assist public managers in leveraging service logic. Originality/value The review positions service research in the public sector, makes explicit the role of complex networks in value creation, argues for wider engagement with public service management, and offers future research directions to advance public service management research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 355
Author(s):  
Nkrumah K. Osei

Based on qualitative data from Ghana, this article explores the issues of governance and the extent to which its potential affects the implementation of sustainable development goals (SDGs). The article argues that, although it is largely understood that governance is about the practice of good government, its potential impact on the implementation of SDGs is limited in Ghana. This study advances that, while the implementation of SDGs in Ghana has paved the way for the application of good governance practice, in some cases, it is still trapped in the institutional and network framework that is touted to hamper quality public service delivery development and progress. However, it is suggested in this context that effective implementation of SDGs can be met if the systems and structures of governance are appropriately aligned using proper checks and balances. Additionally, the level of commitment, rule of law, and accountability must be improved to ensure equal participation for all. Finally, corruption must be fought to restore public confidence in the institutions of government and public sector networks while maintaining public trust and performance management with citizen participation to achieve effective public service delivery.


2011 ◽  
pp. 3133-3141
Author(s):  
Assion Lawson-Body ◽  
Glenn Miller ◽  
Thomas M. Saddler Jr.

The importance of electronic service delivery was recognized at the beginning of the emergence of the Internet (Huang & Hu, 2004); thereafter much attention has been devoted to it as a solution to the issue of the traditional service delivery system (Cetiner & Ryan, 2004; Gassan, De Boer, Mourshed, & Rea, 2001). Too often there is little or no congruence between the image of the service communicated by the service firm and the service actually delivered. This leads to unmet customer expectations and probably to non-satisfied customers, who have lost their faith in the firm and its ability to keep its promises. Governments also invest in veteran service management (VSM) and e-government to increase their service delivery performance. Veterans are the nation’s population who have been discharged or retired after serving on active duty with the United States Armed Forces. E-government refers to efforts in the public sector to use information and communication technologies to deliver government services and information to the public (Gant & Gant, 2002; Gefen, 2002). Government agencies face challenges in making veterans aware of the benefits of online services they are receiving. Anecdotal evidence shows the Internet’s Web portal can enable governments to increase their e-service delivery performance. However, there is little existing research that has tested how the use of Web portals to strengthen existing VSM can increase e-government service delivery performance. The primary objective of this study is to examine how VSM, using Web portal aggregation, may impact electronic service delivery performance. Specifically, the study examines: • the theoretical foundation of VSM, • the theoretical impact of VSM on government service delivery performance, • theoretically and empirically how VSM, supported by Web portal aggregation, may impact e-government service delivery performance. This research focuses on government Web portals that deliver electronic services to veterans. The Web portal of the North Dakota Government Rural Outreach (GRO) Initiative has been selected as the sample U.S. government Web portal for this research. That Web portal has been chosen because it has a component dedicated to veterans and county veteran service officers (CVSOs). Data were collected through open-ended interviews with CVSOs. A total sample consists of 10 CVSOs. The study used content analysis to analyze data obtained from a sample of CVSOs, using the GRO Web portal, to test the hypotheses. The CVSOs assist all veterans and their dependents in obtaining all benefits to which they are entitled, both federal and state. The CVSOs are chosen because they play the role of intermediary between veterans, veteran service and benefits providers, and government agencies. CVSOs interact on G2G (government to government) and G2C (government to citizen) basis in order to serve veterans.


2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mike Danson ◽  
Geoffrey Whittam

The devolved governments and parliaments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland increasingly have been adopting different approaches from England to the delivery of public services. With more powers and responsibilities, Scotland has initiated these moves to divergence, not least with respect to the roles of volunteering, the Voluntary and Community Sectors (VCS) in the context of the ‘Big Society’. This article explores how the environment and institutions in Scotland increasingly are generating moves for different relations between the public, private and VCS. With key powers reserved for the Westminster parliament, differences are demonstrated in the position and development of the VCS.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 4181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natacha Klein ◽  
Tomás Ramos ◽  
Pauline Deutz

The concept of the Circular Economy (CE) is an increasingly attractive approach to tackling current sustainability challenges and facilitating a shift away from the linear “take-make-use-dispose” model of production and consumption. The public sector is a major contributor to the CE transition not only as a policy-maker but also as a significant purchaser, consumer, and user of goods and services. The circularization of the public sector itself, however, has received very little attention in CE research. In order to explore the current state of knowledge on the implementation of CE practices and strategies within Public Sector Organizations (PSOs), this research aims to develop an overview of the existing literature. The literature review was designed combining a systematic search with a complementary purposive sampling. Using organizational sustainability as a theoretical perspective, the main results showed a scattered landscape, indicating that the limited research on CE practices and strategies in PSOs has focused so far on the areas of public procurement, internal operations and processes, and public service delivery. As a result of this literature review, an organizational CE framework of a PSO is proposed providing a holistic view of a PSO as a system with organizational dimensions that are relevant for the examination and analysis of the integration process of CE practices and strategies. This innovative framework aims to help further CE research and practice to move beyond current sustainability efforts, highlighting that public procurement, strategy and management, internal processes and operations, assessment and communication, public service delivery, human resources dimensions, collaboration with other organizations, and various external contexts are important public sector areas where the implementation of CE has the potential to bring sustainability benefits.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 56
Author(s):  
Shahzadah Nayyar Jehan ◽  
Mudalige Uthpala Indeelinie Alahakoon

In 2000, Sri Lanka designed an ambitious plan for the introduction of information and communication technology (ICT) in most government functions and in the public service delivery (PSD) system in the country. This process started in the early 2000s and gained momentum with several local and internationally funded initiatives. A systematic innovation concept was incorporated within the ICT regime, which ensured bottom-up learning for a smooth transformation from paper to digitized PSD systems. Towards this end, the Information Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) and Lanka Government Network (LGN) were established. ICT incorporation covered the operations of most government agencies and departments to improve governance and PSD. We analyzed the efficiency of the ICT regime to understand its impact on public service employee output as well as on services to the public. We collected service delivery data from both the employees and their clients using a Likert-scale questionnaire. The questionnaire enquired about the utility of the ICT regime introduced in various departments and ministries (DMs) of the Sri Lankan government. This paper analyzes the overall and relative effectiveness of the ICT regime in terms of the inputs incurred and the outcomes realized. First, we calculated the Cronbach’s alpha to test the robustness of the data. Second, we applied ordinal logistics analysis to understand the interrelations among various measures (inputs) and their impacts (outcomes). Finally, we conducted specificity, sensitivity, and predictive value analysis to assess the accuracy of the investigative model. Our findings suggest a positive correlation between the inputs and the outcomes of the ICT regime introduced to digitalize PSD. Our results further indicate that although the inputs and the outcomes are positively corelated, this correlation is not sufficiently strong, and the ICT implementation measures need further emphasis to demonstrate any significant impact on user confidence in this regime.


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