Retention of senior managers in the South African public sector: implications for coaching

Abstract

The South African public sector is expected to ensure provision of speedy, consistent and high-quality service to its citizens, however, this has not been the case. As a result, the situation of poor service delivery has given rise to protests which are a common reality in South Africa and these sometimes become violent in nature. At the heart of these service delivery unrests is that the South African government is beset by high staff turnover rates especially at Senior Manager levels, which hampers the ability of institutions to deliver services to the public. The retention of Senior Managers in the public service is a growing HR challenge and it has become necessary to determine the factors that are important for them within the South African public sector. By understanding these retention factors, the research established what the implications are for coaching. The method of data collection from Senior Managers in the public service was semi-structured interviews. The key findings of the study were that retention of Senior Managers was influenced by a multiplicity of factors such as organisational culture, leadership, job satisfaction, remuneration, work life balance. These factors were identified as essential for the retention of Senior Managers within the South African public sector. The paradigm that was used for the study was constructivism which sought to understand the phenomenon from the lived and unique experiences of participants. The study used thematic analysis to identify, analyse, and interpret patterns of meaning (‘themes’) within data received from interviews. The findings of the study revealed the retention factors that Senior Managers consider significant. It was also found that some participants viewed exposure to executive coaching as necessary as it led to the discovery of their purpose and meaning in life and helped them to decide to pursue their aspirations, whilst other participants indicated that exposure to executive coaching influenced their decision to continue working for the public sector. Based on the outcome of the study, it is recommended that further studies be conducted on the topic with specific focus on theoretical and research coaching implications within the South African public sector context.