TITLE:
Factors Affecting Organisational Performance: A Case of a Human Settlement Department in South Africa
AUTHORS:
Zibasa Mabai, George Hove
KEYWORDS:
Organisational Performance, Strategic Planning, Organisational Culture, Leadership
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Business and Management,
Vol.8 No.6,
November
23,
2020
ABSTRACT: Organisations today are concerned about factors that affect their
performance, including the role of strategic planning within the organisation
as this enables the organisation to effectively and efficiently manage its
resources. The purpose of this study was to determine the factors affecting the
performance of the department of human settlements in South Africa (herein the
department). The quantitative research method was used, and the study was
piloted using six selected respondents from the targeted population of 89 and
these respondents were excluded from the study. A questionnaire was designed to
collect primary data, and 72 questionnaires were distributed to the randomly
selected respondents and 45 responses were obtained representing a 65% response
rate. The
study established that environmental factors, working environment,
organisational culture, organisational assets, human resources management,
organisational structure and leadership are the factors that affect performance
in the department. It was also established that strategic planning acts as a
platform to align departmental strategic documents with government planning documents
such as NDP and PDP, facilitate the setting of specific, measurable,
achievable, realistic and time frame (SMART) objectives and targets,
communicate departmental vision, values, goals and objectives effectively and
clearly and provide feedback platform for planning outcomes and performance
measurement. Based on the analysis
undertaken, it was recommended that the department must strategically invest to
improve the resources required to aid the employees to effectively execute
their duties and that the department should ensure sufficient human resources
to achieve the set strategic targets.