https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/22224 2026-05-05T15:11:41Z 2026-05-05T15:11:41Z Naidoo, Goonasagree https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/22551 2018-03-09T12:04:10Z 2009-08-01T00:00:00Z

Developing Leadership and Adopting an African Leadership model for the Improvement of Public Services in South Africa Naidoo, Goonasagree The South African public sector is reeling from the barrage of new initiatives with respect to the government’s transformation agenda, and from a plethora of targets that need to be achieved in the public sector. With the demands from communities for improved service delivery, it is highly unlikely that the South African Government will relax the performance pressures it exerts on public sector organisations. Not surprisingly, leadership sits firmly at the core of this transformation agenda. However, the Government has repeatedly expressed concerns as to the lack of the effectiveness of leadership development initiatives on good governance practices and service delivery outcomes. There is little shared understanding amongst management of the qualities required for effective leadership in the South African public sector. Furthermore, leadership theory is driven by conflicting interpretations. However, fundamental to improved leadership is a clearer shared understanding of what leadership behaviours, approaches and models work in delivering public services. Many leadership development initiatives based on Western Leadership models have been undertaken by the South African government, but there is little evidence so far as to their effectiveness. This paper provides an overview of service delivery in South Africa; the critical need for effective leadership to improve service delivery by the South African public sector, and an overview of leadership approaches and models. The paper also points to why a particular model of African leadership is suggested in relation to the South African public sector; specifically, its validity with respect to the impact on factors that affect employee performance and thus service delivery outcomes.

2009-08-01T00:00:00Z Naidoo, Goonasagree Baloyi, Mafemani Joseph https://ir.unisa.ac.za/handle/10500/22547 2018-06-27T07:14:23Z 2016-09-01T00:00:00Z

Higher education mergers in South Africa: A means towards an end. Naidoo, Goonasagree; Baloyi, Mafemani Joseph The purpose of the study is to investigate the extent to which the 2004 higher education mergers contributed to the post-1994 democratic government’s broader transformation policy agenda of South African society in general. Accordingly, the mergers are then viewed as a mere quantitative reduction of apartheid-engineered higher education institutions from 36 to 21. Rather, a transcendent qualitative perspective is adopted, according to which “mergers” are conceptually nuanced as introducing a different academic nomenclature to advance access, redress, and equity; with the curriculum occupying a pivotal role. The study therefore, posits the higher education institutional mergers as a transition (means) towards the advancement of transformation (end), with access, redress, and equity as foremost policy variables. The qualitative-descriptive model by Blumberg et al., (2005) provided the methodological approach according to which The Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) was viewed as a relevant research setting and case study. Since the conceptual novelty of the higher education mergers did not have the benefit of theoretically supported antecedence in SA, the case study approach facilitated the systematisation of a range of complexities induced by the erstwhile configuration based on race, geographic location, funding, missions, and institutional typology. It is anticipated that the expected outcome of the study is the development of a policy framework to advance transformation beyond higher education.

2016-09-01T00:00:00Z