The impact of transformational leadership on performance management : a South African local government case study

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of transformational leadership on performance management in South African local government through a case study of the Chris Hani District Municipality (CHDM) in the Eastern Cape. As route map, the case study design allows for the exploration and understanding into the variety of experiences, perceptions, and attitudes of the participants towards the socio-economic and socio-political issues under investigation. Transformational leadership is an emerging leadership theory, has been researched extensively, and is gaining popularity in many scholarly works. First developed by James MacGregor Burns (1978), this theory has the potential to raise the morale, motivation, and performance of both the follower and the personnel in striving for self-attainment and the achievement of organisational goals. The current study applied a combination of data collection methods in answering the research question and meeting the research objectives. These included using the shortened Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ 5X, rater format), developed by Bass and Avolio (1995) to measure transformational leadership qualities. Furthermore, individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five (5) leading officials or supervisors in Cradock, Queenstown and Lady Frere who are part of middle management or higher. This was done to probe direct experiences of the implementation and effectiveness of performance management in the CHDM as planned and legislated. Lastly, the case study was complemented by a literature review of scholarly articles and a content analysis on secondary sources, such as journals, relevant legislation, and government documents.The study concluded that transformational leadership exhibits the most preferred choice of leadership style for performance management. Transformational leadership values vision, inspiration, and growth, which are essentials for solving the socio-economic, socio-political, and institutional challenges in the CHDM. The adoption of a performance management framework is considered to be a good first step towards changing or improving actual performance, but the implementation is seen as a compliance burden and lacks required planning and consistency across departments in the CHDM. This may potentially affect the achievement of service delivery targets, especially in the rural areas of the CHDM where vast backlogs still exist. The impact of transformational leadership may be shown through measures such as enhanced capabilities fit for the portfolio and increased accountability towards resource allocation. This can potentially lead to less corrupt behaviour, but also importantly the self-actualisation of individuals. Based on the results of the study, the thesis provides recommendations for the CHDM in the area of transformational leadership development as well as the effective implementation of performance management.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University