Assessment of performance management and development system in selected South African national government departments

Abstract

This research was conducted in order to assess the current state of performance management and development system in the public sector in South Africa. The research focus was on the implementation of the system in selected South African government departments on employees between salary levels 3- 12. The research approach adopted in this study was a mixed method. Interviews and questionnaires were used as primary data collection tools. Five national departments were selected as a purposive sample for the study out of a total 47 national government departments in South Africa. These are National Department of Tourism, Department of Arts and Culture, Department of Planning Monitoring and Evaluation and Office of the Public Service Commission. For the sample, 15% of operational staff members from the post establishment of each department were identified to participate in the study by filling in questionnaires distributed to them and middle, senior management service and union representatives from respective units were sampled to participate in the interview, although only those the researcher judged to be knowledgeable about the topic under study were interviewed. The limitations of the study relate to the unavailability of the senior management office-bearers for interviews. The research results revealed that the current performance management and development system is not effective. The study further demonstrates that employees are demotivated and have lost confidence and trust in the appraisal system. The results reveal that supervisors are biased in managing and implementing the system. Supervisors use the system as a compliance rather than management tool. The study shows that employees are no longer motivated to perform and they suggested that the current system needs to be adjusted or amended in order to close the current gaps and challenges resulting from the bias and lack of commitment from managers. The study identifies the current state of the system with reference to the public sector in South Africa, and also highlights the challenges in improving employees performance by using the current system, the ways through which employees’ performance could be linked to the overall performance of the organisation and lastly evaluates the newly proposed model for managing and implementing the system in South Africa.