Dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Technology: Public Management, Durban University of Technology, 2012. / The Batho Pele principles provide a framework about how public services should be provided for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the Public Service. Adherence to these principles will guarantee the provision of excellent services that meet the people’s needs and expectations, enhance customer satisfaction, while upholding the government’s promise that access to decent public services is no longer a privilege to be enjoyed by a few, but the rightful expectation of all citizens. From the literature review, it was evident that improved public service delivery depends on several aspects ranging from Human Resource Development (HRD) to performance measurement and accountability. The need for improving efficiency and effectiveness of the Public Service is emphasised throughout the various pieces of legislation. Interviews and questionnaires were used to gather data and to get an understanding of data from the point of view of the participants. Analysis of collected data revealed that there is above average compliance to the principles evidenced by the modernised queuing system at the office of study. Batho Pele principles should be incorporated in the performance contracts of all employees in the department so that periodic performance against them is assessed and ultimately all employees will become Batho Pele champions. The findings of this study is not only beneficial to the case study institution, but to all public sector institutions.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

Rapidly spreading in popularity over the past fifteen years, gender mainstreaming has been adopted worldwide by state, supra state and international organizations as the "most modern‟ policy for ensuring gender equality. Yet, there is general agreement that it has not succeeded in achieving its radical potential. In this thesis, I bring together policy literature on bureaucracies, the civil service, and gender mainstreaming with work done on gender, work and organizations as a way to better understand the partial success and uneven implementation and institutionalization of what is supposedly a transformational agenda. To date, gender scholars have underplayed the "stickiness‟ of gender and its effects upon actors and everyday practices in political and state organizations. I argue that the "stickiness‟ of gender in organisations presents a formidable obstacle to the implementation and institutionalization of gender mainstreaming. I also argue that insufficient attention has been paid to the "embodied costs‟ of actors who act as internal gender mainstreaming advocates both in terms of the costs to the individuals and the impact of these costs on the prospects for the successful implementation and institutionalisation of a radical change agenda. Through an ethnographic examination of the Scottish Executive from 2006-2007, I probe the analytic question framing this thesis: what happens to the radical potential of gender mainstreaming during its implementation and institutionalisation in governmental bureaucracies? Using the sociological method of institutional ethnography, I provide evidence of ways that continued reliance on highly committed individuals and everyday bureaucratic practices continue to limit the radical success of gender mainstreaming at the Scottish Executive. I contend that the radical promise of gender mainstreaming is hindered because it is a strategy which must work within the confines of fossilised norms manifested in masculinist bureaucracies and because it is paradoxically predicated on changing bureaucratic norms through the use of the same bureaucratic practices it attempts to transform. By examining the everyday experience of "doing‟ gender mainstreaming in the case of a sub-state government in the UK, the Scottish Executive, I trace the ways that the radical promises of the gender mainstreaming agenda become diluted. The thesis examines challenges to the gender mainstreaming agenda and adds to wider discussions about the plausibility of gender mainstreaming‟s radical potential. In addition, my thesis moves forward methodological discussions in feminist politics by demonstrating the possibility of using institutional ethnography in political science as an effective way to operationalise, analyze and link multiple levels of politics from a gendered perspective. My analysis of local experiences of gender mainstreaming provides insight into the international trend of gender mainstreaming because it takes seriously the experiences of individuals who work within organizations, the role of organizations in limiting change agendas, and the international context within which the mainstreaming strategy unfolds.

The objective of this thesis is to investigate various factors that influence the job performance and promotion of DOD civilian workers. The data used in this study were drawn from the Department of Defense Civilian Personnel Data Files provided by the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC). The initial data was restricted to employees who were initially hired in 1995 and stayed in service until 2003 and were paid under the General Schedule (GS) pay system. Three general performance measures were used: compensation (salary), annual performance ratings and promotions. Multivariate models were specified and estimated for each of these performance measures. The results indicate that females receive lower annual and hourly compensation and are less likely to be promoted than men even though they receive better performance ratings. The results also indicate that minorities are paid less and are less likely to be promoted than majority workers while veterans are paid more, perform better, and are more likely to become supervisors. The models also reveal that performance rating is a weak measure of productivity and that more highly educated employees are paid more and more likely to be promoted more even if they are not always the best performers.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / A Principle-Agent relationship exists between employees of the U.S. Federal Government Executive Branch and the American public, where the employees represent the agent and the American public is the principle. As public servants, whether elected or non-elected, Executive Branch employees are expected to make decisions and spend taxpayer dollars in ways that promote the overall interests of the American public. Public servants regularly encounter situations that would encourage them to place their personal benefit above public benefit. The Executive Branch seeks to minimize these potential conflicts and align the agent's interests with those of the American public through a very detailed and comprehensive ethics program. This thesis sought to assess the effectiveness of the program. Historical development of the program, as well as its current components was explained. A random sample of Executive Branch employees were surveyed to assess their understanding of and compliance with the ethics program. Based on the responses provided in the survey, the researcher concluded, the Executive Branch ethics program is fairly successful in aligning its employees' interests with those of the American public. However, there are areas within the program that could be improved upon, and recommendations specific to these areas are provided at the conclusion of the thesis. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

M.Comm. / The aim of this study is to evaluate performance management in the public service particularly within the Gauteng Department of Health. The researcher also intends to discover the attitude of employees towards performance management systems. A triangulation approach involving qualitative and quantitative analysis was adopted to ensure the validity of the constructs.

Government’s major challenge is to become more effective with limited resources. Perceptions of state employees and the level of awareness about Employee Health and Wellness Programmes is a policy issue that this study attempts to understand inasmuch as it relates to performance of institutions. The objectives of the study were to gauge the level of awareness about Employee Health and Wellness programmes together with the perceptions of employees about the programme, in line with the hypothesis that suggested a contributory link between level of awareness, perceptions about a programme and organisational performance. A mixed method approach was used, which included both qualitative and quantitative methods, to determine both perception and level of awareness as it related to the performance of institutions. The study found that wellness programmes, if well managed and employees were made aware of them, could lead to increased output by employees, thus improving performance. It further established that there is an average level of awareness about employee health and wellness programmes within Public Works. The study concludes that the perceptions of employees about a policy matter and their level of awareness of programme objectives would contribute to overall performance of that institution.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand in 50% fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in the field of Public and Development Management. June, 2017 / A way to better understand the returns for investing in education is to identify the gap between education and employment. This issue has been identified not only in South Africa but worldwide. However, while it focuses on the challenges of employability there has been little research on the value of education in relation to employability and career development amongst workers’ productivity in public sector organisations. For this reason, a basic interpretative qualitative study is developed which explores this relationship with a focus on the value of the City of Johannesburg’s (COJ’s) subsidised education scheme in terms of its returns to organisational growth and human development. Through semi-structured interviews and thematic data analysis of employees’ perceptions, it is found that self-enrichment or personal development outweighs organisational benefits. A culture of life-long learning for the COJ employees has been created without the implementation of mentoring and succession planning to minimise mismatches in the workplace in order to enhance productivity. / MT2017

Thesis advisor: James Cronin / This dissertation argues that British officials attempted to use the legacies of British administrative and imperial structures embedded in twentieth century international institutions to define a new world role for Britain after the Second World War. This role, they determined, would be based in international, administrative, and technical experience and expertise. The concept of an international civil service, loyal to the aims of the international organization they served, was first proposed by British diplomats at the League of Nations and based in the British concept of a politically neutral civil service. After the Second World War, British officials hoped that the legacies of their earlier influence - including administrative structures, ideologies, and a large cadre of officials trained through the British civil service in international administrative and technical affairs - would allow them to remain influential in the administration of the new international organizations despite Britain’s diminished postwar status. They were initially successful in this endeavor, with high rates of representation across the ranks of the United Nations, particularly in social and economic fields. Over time, facing political opposition in the General Assembly over their remaining colonial holdings, British officials hoped that their support for the United Nations – particularly as embodied in their representation in the international civil service – might redeem their international image. However, British interests saw increased competition with those of the United States, Soviet Union, and the global South as the United Nations grew over the course of the 1950s and 1960s. Moreover, principles of equitable geographic representation in the international civil service meant that as membership in the United Nations grew, British representation declined. By the early 1970s, British officials abandoned their earlier hopes of maintaining an outsized role at the United Nations. Examined in this way, the international civil service served as a microcosm for Britain’s own standing in the world as well as one way that British officials actively attempted to manipulate that standing. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.