Integrating organisational and individual performance management systems for improved foster care service delivery

• Published date: 01 December 2022
• Author: Madimetja Joseph Mautla,Adrino Mazenda,Tinashe Mushayanyama
• Date: 01 December 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2810

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Integrating organisational and individual performance

management systems for improved foster care service delivery

Madimetja Joseph Mautla | Adrino Mazenda | Tinashe Mushayanyama

School of Public Management and

Administration, University of Pretoria, Pretoria,

South Africa

Correspondence

Adrino Mazenda, School of Public

Management and Administration, University of

Pretoria, Cnr Lynwood and Roper Street,

Pretoria, South Africa.

Email: adrino.mazenda@up.ac.za

Despite efforts by the South African government to manage public sector perfor-

mance, the Department of Social Development (DSD) is facing lawsuits for failing to

provide public value to the foster care placement beneficiaries. This article examines

the integration of organisational and individual performance management systems to

enhance foster care service delivery in Waterberg District, Limpopo Province,

South Africa. A parallel convergent mixed-method research design was adopted, and

drew on the principal component analysis (PCA) and thematic analysis to analyse the

impact of integrating organisational and individual performance management systems

amongst social workers. The PCA findings accentuate the significant role of strategic

human resources management, work experience and performance management

delivery systems. Furthermore, performance targets as critical elements to enhance

effective foster care service delivery in South Africa is highlighted. In complementing

the PCA findings, the thematic analysis attributed the failure to manage and address

the challenges associated with the backlog in foster care by the DSD as a conse-

quence of misalignment between strategic intent, workforce and internal integration

between different programmes at the operational level, in particular between social

work and community development programmes. Peer review procedures should be

designed to enhance the effectiveness of the performance management deployment

system. Consequently, strategic human resource management practices should corre-

spond with the department's resources and needs to enhance performance and ser-

vice quality.

KEYWORDS

Department of Social Development, foster care service delivery, individual performance,

integrated, organisational performance, South Africa

1|INTRODUCTION

New Public Management (NPM) respondsto the Public Administration

constraints and could be adapted adequately to meet the demands of

a dynamic market economy. NPM focuseson a decentralised manage-

ment system underpinned by monitoring and evaluation, performance

management and accountability (Munzhedzi, 2021; Robinson, 2015).

According to Andersen et al. (2016), performance management is

considered an element of the NPM framework and a significant com-

ponent to ensure a high level of accountability in the public service

through performance standards. Moreover,NPM demands a paradigm

shift from input to output and outcomes. Two types of performance:

Individual and Organisational are key towards public sector service

delivery. Individual performance refersto each individual's efforts dur-

ing a performance cycle, which could be evaluated by management

based on one or more criteria, including but not limited to teamwork,

people skills, organisationalskills, job satisfaction and employee reten-

tion. On the other hand, organisational performance refers to the fol-

lowing government activities: planning, implementing, evaluating and

reporting the effectivenessof its policies and programmes (Lapuente&

Received: 31 May 2021 Revised: 14 November 2021 Accepted: 22 December 2021

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2810

J Public Affairs. 2022;22(Suppl. 1):e2810. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa © 2022 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 1of12

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2810