Leadership and political administrative interface in the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements

Abstract

There is a significant lack of research that focuses on how political and bureaucratic leaders in developing countries interact, and how their interaction affects institutional and policy reform. Yet this survey of the existing literature finds that political-bureaucratic relations are an important factor in reform success or failure. The findings suggest that PoliticalAdministrative relations that support successful reform often involve a core group of political and bureaucratic leaders who work closely together and share development-centred values and aims; bureaucrats who have unusually high levels of influence in designing policy; and strong political leadership promoting the reform.

The goal of this research was to investigate effective leadership that drives organisational change in the Department of Human Settlements to meet the changing environmental needs to improve service delivery within the Gauteng Provincial Government. Organisational change in the human settlements developments must lead to improved service delivery.

This paper focuses on the impact of the politics-bureaucracy interface on institutional reform. It offers an assessment of the current state of research on the nature of the ‘Political-Administrative Interface’ in the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements, and its impact on institutional reform.

In view of the challenges facing the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements, this paper presents an alternative, hybrid leadership model. A hybrid leadership model framework is multifaceted and multidimensional with its own unique characteristics, diverse perspectives, approaches and strategies. The framework caters for sensitivities of culture, gender, religion, ethnic origin and socio-economic and political differences. A ii

combination of leadership approaches is essential in order to improve service delivery.