Book of Innovation and Technology for Economic Growth

There are various reasons for monitoring sustainability in performance management and development systems (PMDS), including the identification of diverse techniques, the performance improvement perspective, in which departments, including the KwaZulu-Natal Office of the Premier, seek to contribute to sustainable development by measuring the factors that allow the department to make decisions and enhance performance and processes. The aim of the study was to establish what difficulties plagued the PMDS at the KwaZulu-Natal Office of the Premier. Questionnaires were disseminated using Simple Random Sampling to ten per cent of participants from a population of 632 employees, working in all five sites (Moses Mabhida, Natalia building, Invesco, Marine building and KZN Provincial Public Service Training Academy). 20 participants were selected using Purposive Sampling for face-to-face interviews. For both the surveys and the interviews, the target population comprised officials ranging from level 3 to level 16, who were in the department for five years or more. The occupational levels for these employees ranged from top management (Senior Management Service) 13-16, (Middle management) 11-12, (Junior management) 9-10 and (Junior employees) 3- 8. The Goal Setting Theory was used to understand the significance of goal setting, oversight, and feedback, with the employment process, in order to improve performance and productivity. Employee job descriptions and management task settings are constantly reviewed to determine where the challenge arises, and suggestions are inevitably made to improve the performance management process (Pumane, 2020). Vroom’s Expectancy theory expresses the interdependence of effort, performance as well as outcome (Lunenbury, 2016: 2). Workers are of the opinion that proper effort is expended in the course of work, and that this is intended to improve performance. The greatest performance improves great rewards and salary level advancement for the employee (Martinko, 2018). This theory was used to better understand the compensation package used in the KwaZulu-Natal Office of the Premier to motivate employees to achieve their goals. In theory, this is done to increase motivation and enable employees to contribute their best efforts to the organisation.

Findings revealed, amongst others, that managers engineered blockages to prevent staff from achieving their goals, thus hindering staff bonuses and progressions, favouritism, bias and incorrect ratings. Suggested recommendations, amongst others, indicated managers should receive training on how to deliver structured, frank, and timely feedback as part of the PMDS implementation.