Strategy and planning as an enabler for strategy execution In South African municipalities

Abstract

Literature confirmed that whilst progress has been made in recent years, there is still a pressing need amongst communities in South Africa for improved service delivery. There is also increasing frustration and anger at the inability of municipalities to do what is expected of them. Municipalities, in general, have a poor record in respect of execution of strategy.

The research problem - what prevents Gauteng municipalities in South Africa to successfully execute its strategies and what can be done to address the situation?- will be answered and dealt with when the findings and conclusions relevant to each research objective are discussed.

Research and literature to date focused primarily on planning and strategy formulation but neglected the very important execution process. Whilst strategy execution is a dismal failure in most organizations, to date, very little research has focused on strategy execution.

Managers and their employees must apply new ways of thinking and they point out that todays high performing organizations are able to bridge the strategy-execution gap due to the fact that their strategies translate to specific operational goals, their employees understand the context and purpose of their work, and they can readily measure how well they are performing.