Service delivery to governmental and commercial environments with specific reference to Gerotek as a public entity

Abstract

Striving towards service excellence, a public entity can embark on various service and product delivery strategies as well as functional management strategies or management tools. The primary objective of this study is to indicate to what extent a public entity such as Gerotek can meet the different approaches to economically viable service delivery to the government and commercial environments respectively, where different rules, regulations, means and ways of contracting apply. In order to realise this objective, the characteristics of public entities and those of private entities competing in the same market were explored and comparisons made between the different entities to indicate the level of success each one is able to achieve. Public-Private Partnerships, Project-Partnering and Management, as well as Black Economic Empowerment involvement, as different forms of partnership agreements or other forms of business models, were investigated to distinguish best practice in service and product delivery strategies. The effectiveness of various management tools was discussed, such as the South African Excellence Model, Total Quality Management, and the Balanced Scorecard, which can be applied to assist management in improving service delivery. Interviews were conducted according to an interviewer-administered questionnaire to obtain information pertaining to the literature study of the above, in order to determine the effectiveness of service delivery within a public entity competing in government and commercial environments. The respondents agreed that a public entity could meet best practice to deliver economically viable services and products to both environments, with the reservation that continuous improvements should be made.