Skills profile of technical staff in the south African local government sector: an empirical survey
-
DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.16(1).2018.17
-
Article InfoVolume 16 2018, Issue #1, pp. 173-185
- Cited by
- 1505 Views
-
276 Downloads
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
The purpose of this article is to reflect on the findings of a local government sector-wide technical skills audit. A mixed-method research design was followed in both a positivist and interpretivist scientific paradigm to conduct the survey in local, district and metropolitan municipalities. Quantitative and qualitative data were processed and thematic analyses were done per respondent and participant category to obtain rich descriptions of current technical skills challenges and skills development priorities in local government. From the empirical survey it is evident that significant technical skills shortages exist, especially in rural district and local municipalities. This severely compromises the delivery of the four basic technical services, namely water provisioning, waste management, sanitation and sewerage, and electricity.
- Keywords
-
JEL Classification (Paper profile tab)J24, M53
-
References21
-
Tables0
-
Figures4
-
- Figure 1. Research phases
- Figure 2. Geographical and biographical profile of participants and respondents
- Figure 3. Profile of target group 1
- Figure 4. Profile of target group 2
-
- De Wet, C., & Van der Waldt, G. (2013). Ascertaining South Africa’s public service senior management competence domains from a developmental state landscape. Administration Publica, 12(1), 47-68.
- Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) (2011). National Skills Development Strategy III.
- Francis, A. (2012). Management principles.
- Grindle, M. S., & Hildebrand, M. E. (1995). Building Sustainable Capacity in the Public sector: What can be done? Public Administration and Development, 15(5), 441-463.
- Knechel, W. R., & Salterio, S. E. (2016). Auditing: Assurance and Risk (4th ed.). London: Routledge.
- Leinicke, L. M., Ostrosky, J. A., Rexroad, W. M., Baker, J. R., & Beckman, S. (2005). Interviewing as an Auditing Tool. The CPA Journal, 75(2), 34-38.
- Liebowitz, J., Rubenstein-Montano, B., McCaw, D., & Browning, C. (2000). The Knowledge Audit. Knowledge and Process Management, 7(1), 3-10.
- Lindow, P. E., & Race, J. D. (2002). Beyond traditional audit techniques. Journal of Accountancy, 194(1), 28-33.
- Mahmood, Z., Basharat, M., & Bashir, Z. (2012). Review of classical management theories. Journal of international social sciences and education, 2(1), 198-223.
- Meyer, M., Mabaso, J., Lancaster, K., & Nenungwi, K. (2007). Education, Training and Development Practitioners Practices in South Africa (2nd ed.). Durban: LexisNexis.
- Murphy, R. (2001). A briefing on key skills in higher education. Assessment Series 5. ITSN Generic Centre. Nottinghamshire: University of Nottingham.
- Niaz, A. S. (2011). Training and development strategy and its roles in organisational performance. Journal of Public Administration and Governance, 1(2), 1-16.
- Olum, Y. (2004). Modern management theories and practices. Proceeding of the 15th East African Central Banking Conference. Kenya School of Monetary Studies. Nairobi.
- Ongori, H., & Nzozo, J. C. (2011). Training and development practices in an organisation.
- Petrick, J. A., Scherer, R. F., Brodzinski, J. D., Quinn, J. F., & Ainina, M. F. (1999). Global leadership skills and reputational capital: Intangible resources for sustainable competitive advantage. Academy of Management Perspectives, 13(1), 158-169.
- Pham, L. B. (2014). What are organizational theories?
- Rao, T.V. (2014). HRD Audit: Evaluating the Human Resource Function for Business Improvement. New York, NY: Sage.
- South Africa (2010). The Framework for the National Skills Development Strategy 2011/12 – 2015/16. First draft for consultation, 29 April. Pretoria: Government Printers.
- Thenmozhi, M. (2014). Evolution of management theory. Department of Management Sciences. Chennai: Indian Institute of Technology Madras Press.
- Velada, R., Caetano, A., & Kavanagh, M. J. (2007). The effects of training design, individual characteristics and work environment on transfer of training. Journal of International Training and Development, 11(4), 1-30.
- Zeiger, S. (2014). The difference between a classical management theory and human relations theory. Athens: Ohio University Press