Employees'perceved effectiveness of the performance management and development system in a selected department, North West Province

Abstract

The study will contribute to the knowledge gap regarding employees' perceptions of the effectiveness of the PMS. Additionally, the study will be used as a benchmark for other provincial departments to emulate in evaluating employees' perceptions of the effectiveness of the PMS to enhance performance. Therefore, based on the gaps identified by the results of this study, information gathered in this work will assist the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform to revise and reformulate existing performance management practices. The researcher used a quantitative approach in this study. A cross-sectional survey design was used to gather primary data. Self-administered e-mailed questionnaires were used as data gathering method. The research focused on accuracy and fairness as the constructs of effectiveness. The population in this study comprised 247 employees in the North West Provincial Department of Rural Development and Land Reform. The researcher used descriptive statistics such as tables, graphs, means and standard deviations, Cronbach's alpha coefficient, T-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson's product-moment as analytic techniques. The study revealed that the overall mean score was slightly above the mid-point of the range. This revealed that employees perceived PMS to be effective; however, the implementation of the system appeared to have some problems. The most significant findings of the study were the gaps identified in the implementation of PMS. The significance of the findings is that even though employees perceived PMS to be effective, the DRDRL has to address the gaps identified to improve its effectiveness. This study showed that it does not necessarily mean that because employees perceive PMS to be effective that all aspects of the system are well implemented. The implications of the findings are that the department under study should reflect on its implementation of PMS and improve on the areas where mean scores were found to be

below the mid-point of the range. The limitation of the study was that not all employees participated in the study, as expected .