There is a strong belief amongst human resource specialists, professionals and academics that strategic human-resource management is critical to the success of the business and wellbeing of employees, and the organisation in which they work. There are two sides to human resources, as a strategic partner: Firstly, how it looks and portrays itself; and secondly, how the organisation views the importance of its human capital. Ulrich, Younger, Brockbank and Ulrich (2012) and the RBL Group (2012) identified six human-resource competencies for human resource (HR) practitioners. These not only identify the role they play in an organisation; but they also assist an organisation in achieving its objectives. These competencies, which apply to all HR practitioners, are: strategic positioner, change champion, credible activist, capability builder, technology proponent, innovator, and integrator. The implementation of the Government Immovable Asset Management Act No.19 of 2007 (GIAMA), and its policy implementation, are critical to infrastructural developments, economic development, and skills development, redressing any imbalances from the past and current history, and also developing a public service that assists the country in being internationally competitive. An HR practitioner with a worldview is critical in facilitating one of the most important transformative pieces of legislation. The research problem in this study is to investigate the role of human resources in the implementation of GIAMA and its policy framework in the Eastern Cape Province’s Port Elizabeth Regional Office by the National Department of Public Works. To achieve this objective, a quantitative study was undertaken on the role of human resources as a “strategic partner”. It involved an extensive literature review to assess the role of strategic human resources. An empirical study was later conducted to investigate the role of human resources in the Port Elizabeth Regional Office (from the National Department of Public Works); and how well this office succeeds in playing its assigned role. The conducted survey was compared with the literature review, to determine whether the Port Elizabeth Regional Office’s human resources are in line with the objectives of being a “strategic partner”. The overall findings revealed that the role of human resources is not that of a “strategic partner”. It also revealed that of the six competencies identified by Ulrich et al. (2012) and the RBL Group (2012), none of them could really be viewed as strategic. Notwithstanding the progressive pieces of legislation, it was appalling to receive the outcome, which indicated organisational failure for the past six years (see Figure 1.1). The conclusion of the study indicated that the Port Elizabeth Regional Office (from National Department of Public Works) must implement legislative recommendations as a starting point, and grow from there. The legislation and regulations are very supportive, and encourage innovative thinking – to achieve government goals – and to be on a par with the private sector.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:8881 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Ngwenze, Lizo Archibald |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MBA |
| Format | xiii, 129 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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