A description of whether the objectives of the performance management system of the Botswana Department of Tribal Administration are being realised

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Public sector organisations have to deliver quality services to the people amid budgetarycuts and public disenchantment with the public sector. Delivering these services in the faceof dwindling resources has led public sector organisations to introduce performanceimprovement initiatives in an endeavour to do more with less.The government of Botswana introduced a raft of performance improvement initiatives suchas WITS, O & M and Job Evaluation in the public sector with the sole objective of improvingperformance and driving public service delivery. However, despite the implementation ofthese initiatives, there was increasing concern that the quality of the delivery of publicservices was declining. These performance improvement initiatives were criticised for failingto make any meaningful impact on organisational performance, as the problems of poorservice delivery remained unchanged.The failure of these earlier public sector reforms to improve organisational performance ledthe government to introduce a more comprehensive and holistic reform programme, PMS,guided by the national vision – Vision 2016 – in 1999. PMS was seen as the overallframework within which all previous reform initiatives could be integrated.This research sought to determine whether the objectives of PMS of DTA were beingrealised, given that previous public sector reforms had been deemed to have failed toactually raise organisational performance. A case study of DTA was therefore undertaken todescribe the extent to which PMS had delivered on its objectives. Data collection wasthrough structured self-administered questionnaires, comprising 14 closed-ended questions,one ranked question and one open-ended question. This was also augmented bydocumentary analysis of official reports such as the Annual Statements of Accounts (ASA).The research found that PMS had succeeded only in so far as communicating DTA's vision,mission and values across the department. There was awareness of PMS within DTA.However, the system had not succeeded in improving DTA's organisational performance, asit was hampered by various challenges such as lack of leadership commitment, the difficultyin implementing the system and lack of feedback on organisational performance.Recommendations are also made for enhancing DTA's PMS to actually realise its objectivesof improving organisational performance.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University