The nexus between institutional framework and employee performance in Tanzania’s maritime sector

Abstract

Employee performance has been a critical theme which has received global attention in the mainstream literature of public sector governance. In developing countries, the need for employee performance is backed up by public dismay on declining public sector performance. Some of the causes attributed to low performance are the meagre resources allocated to the public sector and the existing formal rules and regulations which mould the behaviour of employees. So far, the existing informal social rules which also regulate the behaviour of employees have received little attention. This article is therefore set to explore the relationship between the formal institutional framework, the informal social rules and the availability of resources on one hand, and employee performance within Tanzania's maritime sector on the other. Accordingly, the study adopted a mixed approach with a case study of the Tanzania Port Authority in Dar es Salaam. To this end, a stratified simple random sampling technique was used to get a sample of 318 respondents for a questionnaire and a purposeful sampling technique was used to get a sample of 30 respondents for in-depth interviews. Quantitative data were analysed through descriptive statistics of employee performance variables and interviews were analysed through a thematic approach to get in-depth information concerning the influence of formal and informal institutions and resources on employee performance. The study found that employees’ performance behaviour at Dar es Salaam port authority is regulated by formal system such as the Open Performance Review and Appraisal System and informal channels of communication. The formal rules define the targets to be reached by each employee but the informal social rules and the resources provide the conditions to achieve the predetermined target. Points for practitioners Public managers should be aware that employee performance in the public sector is a function not only of formal rules and regulations in place but also of the availability of resources and the informal social rules which set the conditions and influence the way public officials perform their daily duties and responsibilities in the public office.