Examining strategic management processes in public organisations: a case study of KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs.
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Date
2018
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Abstract
South Africa’s democratic dispensation has for the past 23 years focused on progressive policies to enhance service delivery with policy development culminating in various legislation. Given socio-economic and political realities, the policy development phase had not produced the desired output and outcomes. The South African Government therefore, through National Treasury, introduced the strategic planning framework as part of its business management approach to provide efficient and effective management of planning key service delivery decisions that a public organisation must get right in order to realise its legal mandates in the next several years. A key question raised in the research study is: what are the organisational factors related to effective strategy execution at the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Environment affairs (KZNDAE)? Hence, the thesis assesses how the concerns apply ‘innovatively’ from the public sector organizational perspective, with an empirical study that was undertaken to explore strategy execution and management of organisational factors, as was the case in the KZNDAE. The study was theorized within the 5C Protocol of policy management and the South African Excellence Model focusing on performance excellence, as the thrust of the theoretical framework for enhancing both performance and strategic management practices. A total of 200 questionnaires through a purposive sampling strategy were distributed and a feedback of 180 yielded a 90% response rate, and 20 interviews undertaken through a qualitative study leaning on the mixed methods research for the primary data. Secondary information was also obtained from policy documents, strategic frameworks, Auditor General’s reports and other literature reviews undertaken. The empirical aspect from Cronbach’s Alpha values revealed that respondents from employees, management and users of KZNDAE services have similar views regarding most organisational factors (leadership impact on strategy execution for enhancement of service delivery, detracting and contributory organisational factors and stakeholder support during strategy execution). Again, the study through Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy (KMO) and Bartlett's Test proved that there are strong relations amongst the three organisational factors, which was also in some instances corroborated by the thematic and content analysis of the interviews undertaken. The study proposed the Six ‘Rights’ Strategy Execution Model that could facilitate effective and efficient service delivery and organizational performance of the pre-determined strategy objectives as part of its ‘business’ management approach to fulfilling its Constitutional mandate in the current era and beyond. Finally, the department is encouraged to increase its allocation to operation plans in order to curb the problem of budgetary constraints hindering strategy execution and management.
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Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.