A strategy to transform municipalities into high performance organisations

D.Comm.The objective of this study was to explore a group of key employees‟ experiences and perceptions at the Metropolitan Municipality of Tshwane of the service performance of the municipality they work for, as well as to develop a social science tool – a model – that could be used to help this institution play its role of delivering effective services to its residents in the country‟s democratic dispensation. A combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods in the form of a mixed method approach was used in this study. The existing quantitative instrument was buttressed by the empirically derived qualitative insights to form an instrument that was later distributed among employees of the Metro with a view to developing a “mixed model” of a high performance organisational culture for the institution involved. During the qualitative phase of this study interviews were conducted using a grounded theory approach. Two stakeholders and six members of staff were interviewed. The result of the interviews was a qualitatively derived pattern of interrelated concepts in the form of a “shared vision” model, consisting of rich descriptive data which were carefully analysed using a grounded theory methodology,i that is, the development of theory that is derived from an analysis of qualitative data. The computer-assisted data analysis tool, Atlas.ti, was also used to support the qualitative data analysis process. The qualitatively derived model displayed overall groundedness of between 1 and 4 and a density of between 1 and 13. To confirm the trustworthiness of the findings, member checking was done with the research participants. The second phase of the study was effected by distributing a questionnaire to 800 randomly selected Metro employees. Of the 800 questionnaires sent out, 474 were completed and returned, thus constituting a response rate of 59.25%. The returned questionnaires were deemed adequate for conducting a factor analysis. A first-level factor analysis was consequently conducted on intercorrelation matrices of the 14 theoretical dimensions. A second-level factor analysis on a sub-score intercorrelation i Glaser and Stauss (1967). iv matrix followed and resulted in three factors being extracted. Iterative item analyses then yielded acceptable metric properties for each dimension and a Cronbach alpha coefficient ranging between 0.703 and 0.964, which was deemed acceptable scale reliability for the model. To arrive at the desired model, the findings of the two phases of the “mixed method” approach were connected and interrelated such that data from the quantitative phase played a supportive role to data from the qualitative phase. The derived model consists of the inner core and the outer core. The elements of the outer core which were qualitatively derived by means of grounded theory provided a “thick description” of the discourse and gave the research participants a “voice” in the inquiry. The elements of the outer core were identified as good governance, clean and efficient administration, and community involvement. The elements of the inner core, on the other hand, were elicited through deductive reasoning and gave the model a quantitative grounding through the use of factor analysis. These elements included leadership, delivery processes and stakeholder satisfaction. The results of the two methods were thus integrated into a model called the New Empirical High Performance Organisational Culture Model (NEHPOM). To test Metro senior management‟s views of the model, a nominal group session was conducted. This session granted acceptance of the model, indicating, among other things, that the model would help to create synergy between governance, residents and leadership of the Metro