Employee internal communication satisfaction in eThekwini Municipality: a neo-institutional theory (NIT) perspective of the post-2016 municipal elections period (March -June 2017)

Abstract

This thesis presents a retrospective analysis of the internal communication satisfaction at eThekwini Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, immediately following the 2016 municipal elections. This period represents a significant juncture shaped by the transformed political and administrative environment post-2016. It underscores the influence of the institutional environment on internal communication processes during this crucial turning point in South African local government, arguing that public organisations are communicatively constituted. As key local government institutions responsible for service delivery, municipalities occupy an important position within South Africa’s governance framework (CoGTA 2025; Parliament of the Republic of South Africa 2023; CoGTA 2021b; CoGTA 2018; Republic of South Africa 1996). However, despite the importance placed on optimum municipal performance, inadequate attention has been directed to internal organisational communication within local government organisations, even though internal communication satisfaction has been linked to job satisfaction and productivity in the literature.

In the South African context, there have been great displays of dissatisfaction with the services local government organisations render, which citizens and employees have expressed through protest action in various parts of the country (Dawood 2025; Vallabh, & Mxunyelwa 2022; Booysen 2021; Magubane 2021; Ndasana, Ngcamu 2019; Wasserman, Chuma & Bosch 2018).

It is for this reason that national government has begun to direct greater attention to municipal performance, legislatively ensuring that all municipalities adhere to comparatively stringent and austere regulations and audits, with the possibility of wide-scale investigations into municipal maladministration that may have equally unfavourable consequences for municipal administrators. This context was significantly exacerbated by the 2016 municipal elections, which introduced pervasive institutional uncertainty and political turbulence across key metropolitan areas, notably within eThekwini Municipality. Therefore, internal communication satisfaction is a germane concept to explore, both theoretically and empirically, within local government organisations.

Positioned within this void, this study proposes a multilevel and multidisciplinary approach to understanding the internal organisational communication satisfaction of local government organisations operating within a highly regulated institutional context and highlights how internal communication can be approached strategically in this context. Therefore, this multidisciplinary and multilevel study is, firstly, based on a sound and rigorous literature review, focusing on relevant theories that provide insight into the influence that the institutional context of public sector organisations may have on internal communication satisfaction, beginning with neo-institutional theory (NIT), the meta-theory of this research, and leading up to communication satisfaction literature. Subsequently, the empirical research of the study was implemented at a South African metropolitan municipality, the eThekwini Municipality, post-2016 municipal elections, and comprised qualitative interviews and a quantitative questionnaire. While there was some variation in the results, the overall findings revealed a pattern of employee dissatisfaction across the eight dimensions of communication satisfaction. They further demonstrated that communication satisfaction was influenced by the institutional environment and the implementation of communication practices within the municipality.

This study, thus, provides a neoteric contribution to the field of internal organisational communication, with a specific focus on local government organisations in a South African context during a time of unprecedented political disruption, indicating a move towards a more competitive and fragmented political landscape.