Abstract
Municipalities have been operating without the unit or departmental strategic plans aligned to the Integrated Development Plans (IDPs). This has led to the fragmentation of their organograms or structures. The resultant to silo-ed organisational structures are characterised by inefficiency and ineptitude caused by cadre deployment, which has directly paralysed service delivery. The primary purpose of this study was to reveal the root causes of poor customer service and delivery in municipalities by interrogating the eThekwini Municipality’s Regional Centres Unit operational activities. A qualitative case study research method was employed in this study. Data was collected through indepth interviews with a population size of 56 employees, as well as through focus groups constituted of 24 employees. A notable finding of this study was the unavailability of the approved unit’s strategic plan which has resulted to the unaligned silo-ed structure, and unclear roles and responsibilities; and ineptitude of employees. The unaligned and silo-ed structures to the approved strategic plan within eThekwini Municipality’s Regional Centres Unit have the potential value add to the literature in public administration on the ways to detect the hidden municipal administrative bottlenecks in improving the efficiency, effectiveness and acceleration of the municipal services to its customers.
Highlights
The municipal units or departments in South Africa have been operating without the approved strategic plans cascading from the approved Integrated Development Plan (IDP), which has exacerbated fragmented organograms or structures, silo mentality, incompetency and broken business processes. Fourie & Jager (2005) argue that front line employees should be well informed about the organisation’s mission, goals, strategies and organisational processes
One of the research problems under-scrutiny and exposed in the literature far is whether municipal structures or organograms talks to the units or departmental strategic plans, which are aligned to the IDP
Administrative findings: The research findings conducted within the Regional Centre Unit reveals structural fragmentations, incompetent employees, silo mentality, and the duplication of roles and responsibilities, which hinder the smooth functioning of the customer care centres
Summary
The municipal units or departments in South Africa have been operating without the approved strategic plans cascading from the approved Integrated Development Plan (IDP), which has exacerbated fragmented organograms or structures, silo mentality, incompetency and broken business processes. Fourie & Jager (2005) argue that front line employees should be well informed about the organisation’s mission, goals, strategies and organisational processes. Fourie & Jager (2005) argue that front line employees should be well informed about the organisation’s mission, goals, strategies and organisational processes. The municipal units or departments in South Africa have been operating without the approved strategic plans cascading from the approved Integrated Development Plan (IDP), which has exacerbated fragmented organograms or structures, silo mentality, incompetency and broken business processes. This is evident at the eThekwini Municipality’s Regional Centres Unit whereby the unity structures are perceived to follow emotions rather than strategic plans which have caused input and bureaucratic orientated business processes with reduced customer focus which has directly impacting negatively on customer care and service delivery. Whether the intertwined strategic plan and the structure have a potential to influence the functioning of the customer care centres needs to be established. Kaplan & Norton (2004) mention organisational structure capabilities as one of the leading measures of innovation
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