As a democratic, developmental state South Africa is plagued by a myriad of challenges ranging from poverty and inequality to the lack of a skilled workforce and high unemployment. The National Development Plan, Vision 2030... [ view full abstract ]
As a democratic, developmental state South Africa is plagued by a myriad of challenges ranging from poverty and inequality to the lack of a skilled workforce and high unemployment. The National Development Plan, Vision 2030 (NDP) (National Planning Commission (NPC), 2011) argues that poverty and inequality should be fought through, inter alia, the creation of a capable state. The NDP recognises that such a capable state is currently hampered by the tensions between the administrative/political interface as well as the instability of the administrative leadership (NPC, 2011). Senior administrative leaders are at the forefront in promoting their agentic transformative and developmental obligation.
One of the prominent developments by the South African Government, during 2001, was the establishment of the Senior Management Service (SMS). Through the creation of the SMS an attempt was made to professionalise senior administrative leadership with the intent of establishing a visionary corps of leaders capable of addressing service delivery complexities through innovative thinking. The former Minister for Public Service and Administration, Fraser-Moleketi (2007) argued that senior managers play a key role in shaping the direction, culture, structures and systems to support delivery of Government programmes. Correspondingly, the NDP (NPC, 2011) places great emphasis on the unevenness and poor quality of capacity, skills and competence of public servants and services rendered by the State.
As one of the topics relevant to the Bureaucratic Leadership and Public Sector Management in Developing and Transitional Countries panel, conceptualising senior administrative leadership within the South African context will be the main aim of the paper. As Van Wart (2003) argues, one of the perennial debates in leadership is what leadership should be focusing on – whether organisational performance or employee development would provide the proper context for understanding administrative leadership? Whether administrative leadership entails a specific leadership style or is it contextual in nature? The paper argues that the context of a developmental state provides for specific considerations to be made in conceptualising senior management administrative leadership. Van Wart (2013) acknowledges that specific contextual factors influence leadership practice and the purpose of the paper is to, through the use of a qualitative case study, explore the manner in which the South African SMS with its concomitant SMS competency framework has recognised the contextual nature of administrative leadership within a democratic developmental state.
Sources:
Fraser-Moleketi, G. 2007. Keynote address at the Annual Senior Management Conference held in Cape Town on 13 September. Obtained from: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/CPSI/UNPAN027365.pdf. Accessed 7 July 2016.
National Planning Commission. 2011. National Development Plan, Vision 2030. Pretoria: National Planning Commission.
Van Wart, M. 2003. Public-Sector Leadership Theory: An assessment. Public Administration Review, 63(2):214-228.
Van Wart, M. 2013. Administrative Leadership Theory: A reassessment after 10 years. Public Administration, 91(3):521-543.
B1 - Bureaucratic Leadership and Public Sector Management in Developing and Transitional C
