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    STAFF DEVELOPMENT POLICIES AND SERVICE DELIVERY IMPROVEMENT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HOME AFFAIRS
    (2014-01-20) Tsipane, Lawrence Tshwaro
    Before 2008, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) received criticism for the poor level of services it provided and was accused of having high levels of corruption. In 2008, the DHA developed and implemented a turnaround strategy to, among others, improve its service delivery. This strategy appears to have been successful as citizens and critics moved from being highly critical of the department, to openly praising it for efficient service delivery. The implementation of skills development initiatives was a significant aspect of the strategy. The introduction of all new systems and technologies was supported by an elaborate and sustained process of building the capacity of the staff. This research project sought to determine the extent to which managers in the DHA believed that the implementation of staff development policies has contributed to service delivery improvements in the department and to establish what measures were put in place to sustain the implementation thereof. In-depth interviews were conducted with key informants within the department. This report therefore, present the perceptions or views of the respondents in relation to the role of skills development, wherein they reported that the strategic focus on skills development during the Turnaround Project was the main reason for the successful improvement in the quality of services rendered by the DHA. They further indicated how, through the turnaround process, an environment conducive to the implementation of skills development was created in the department. Some valuable advice on how the implementation of staff development policies can be improved throughout the Public Service was shared by respondents, including how other departments could learn from the DHA experience of having turned itself around from a department declared dysfunctional by the Cape High Court in 2005, to one receiving special mention as a model of good practice in the National Development Plan Vision -2030. The main lesson learnt from the DHA case study is that effective implementation of staff development policies in the public service can contribute significantly towards service delivery improvement.
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    LEADERSHIP FOR STAFF RETENTION IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN GAUTENG.
    (2011-11-14) SITHOLE, PHUMZILE
    Social development is essentially a people centered approach to development that promotes citizen participation and strengthens the voice of poor people in decision making. The meeting of human needs is a national collective responsibility, a collaborative partnership, amongst the civil society, government and private sector. The state plays a leading role in implementing development programmes, and these programmes require adequate and skilled service professionals, which are social workers. Social workers are enthusiastic proponents of the social development approach. There is however a serious mismatch between the overwhelming demands for services and the numbers of social service professionals to deliver on these demands. This has adversely affected the organisation’s programmes as projects are abruptly stopped or shelved due to lack of manpower. The National Minister for Public Service and Administration recognized the scarcity of social workers as early as 2003 and declared it a scarce skill. Social work has been declared a scarce skill in terms of the skill framework issued by the Department of Public Service Administration. The primary aim of the study therefore was to explore and describe the role that leadership can assume in the crisis of skills shortage of social workers in the Gauteng province. Qualitative description methods were used in the study, with a purposive sampling of eight respondents, four production officials and four managers from the metro (Johannesburg) region of Gauteng province with different number of years of experience. The results of the study show that the respondents are not content; the non managers have lost confidence in the present leadership and the retention strategy. The present leadership agrees that they are not operating the way they should as some are not capacitated to do so, while others complain about being excluded in decision making, giving political appointees more power to rule and oppress them. This study maintains that leaders do not possess the qualities that their followers most value; they feel left out, not represented and not taken care of. The results of the study are discussed and recommendations are offered for the organization to deploy the necessary leadership theory to address job turnover and keep it to a minimum or even halt completely