Employee performance: the challenge for managers in the Free State public service

[摘要] English: The South African Public Service (SAPS) as the implementation machinery and the right arm of the South African Government is expected to put forward effective and efficient performance in order to uphold the wishes of the government of a better life to all. It is known that effective and efficient public service performance is reliant on the motivation, skills, competency, dedication and integrity of public servants and the quality of management and leadership. The critical role of public servants in the SAPS is acknowledged by leaders like Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki and the President Jacob Zuma in their several 'State of the Nation' addresses. The importance of people (human capital) in any organization is emphasized by management theorists as well, and is a topic for continuous interest and research. The role of human capital is afforded the crucial status because people are the basic building blocks of organizations and are scarce, inimitable and complex. People are the only resource that is dynamic and can control, activate and convert other resources into goods and services. These characteristics unique to people in fact make them the most valuable and expensive of all other resources in any organization including the SAPS.In light of the performance expectations from the public servants, there were studies and reports that examined the performance reality of the SAPS. These studies pointed to the fact that there are human resource challenges such as shortage of capacity and skills in the Public Service that hinder its ability to provide effective and efficient performance. The National Development Plan (NDP) and the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) also reinforced the negative impact of the skills shortage on the performance of the South African government. The dearth in development of appropriate human resources and human resource capacity to support effective and efficient governance, were identified as the most challenging areas in the performance of the South African government. The Management Performance Assessment Tool (MPAT) that measured the quality of management practices in the SAPS support the above argument. The MPAT observed that human resource management was poor across the SAPS. As a result, the MPAT report emphasized the strengthening of the management and development of its human resources. The report further urged that the management of human resources must be the major concern of leaders and managers in the Public Service.Likewise, documents such as the White Paper on Transformation of the Public Service (WPTPS), 1997 and the White Paper on Human Resource Management (WPHRM), 1995 also uphold the importance of managerial responsibility for performance in the SAPS. The WPTPS, 1997 urges managers at all levels to be leaders, visionaries, initiators, effective communicators and decision-makers towards supporting employees so that the employees can provide effective and efficient performance. The WPHRM, 1995 however regards management of people as one of the very significant tasks of managers. Another solution towards effective and efficient employee performance is public servants who are empowered, motivated and committed and who are ready to perform. A further answer in addressing the challenges of human resource capacity and performance is the practice of performance management because performance management is one vehicle through which managers can undertake their managerial responsibilities of empowering and motivating employees. Performance management is a tool that tells managers that they are responsible for the performance of the staff who works with them.Therefore, this study concentrated on the performance of public servants and the crucial role played by managers in the Free State Public Service (FSPS) in ensuring that the public servants give effective and efficient performance. It can be deduced from the explanations given in the thesis that management support together with objective performance management can lead to favourable work environment, which in turn can result in effective and efficient employee performance, hence the reasoning behind the study and the research problem. Therefore, the research questions that sought answers focused on whether managers in the FSPS departments provide management support to employees, manage employee performance objectively, and create a favourable work environment that nurtures and motivates employees to contribute effective and efficient performance.The hypothesis therefore, indicated that the FSPS employees (public servants) will be effective and efficient performers if their managers are able to create and manage a positive work environment by providing management support, and by implementing the current performance management system objectively. The aim and objectives of the study, and the hypothesis, were validated through qualitative and quantitative research and analysis. The thesis then concluded by presenting the research findings and conclusions and by making recommendations on how employee performance can be further improved in the FSPS.

[发布机构] University of the Free State