Browsing by Subject "Leadership"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    Open Access
    An Exploratory Study of Western Cape Province NonProfit Organisations response to the COVID-19 Pandemic
    (2022) Tinnion, Charlotte; Atmore, Eric
    This study focuses on the response of NPOs to the COVID-19 pandemic. The main research questions focus on the role of NPO leaders and management in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The effect of COVID-19 on the organisations' operations, focusing on service delivery, staff and finances are explored. The study looks at the lessons learned by the NPO sector considering the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on factors that enabled NPOs to survive (protective factors) and factors that placed NPOs at risk of closure (risk factor). Change Management Theory and Organisation Resilience Theory are used as two theoretical frameworks that underpin the study. The research paradigm of the study is qualitative and the research design and method is exploratory. The exploratory nature of qualitative research was selected given that the COVID-19 pandemic is a recent and hitherto minimally research area with limited information. Twenty participants who held senior leadership positions were interviewed using a semi-structured interview schedule. Due to social distancing regulations, the majority of the interviews were conduct via 45 minute zoom sessions. The data collected was analysed using Tesch's data analysis model. The method of data analysis applied was thematic analysis. The data collected was analysed using Tesch's data analysis model. The study findings include that the COVID-19 crisis has provided an opportunity for NPOs to strategise for growth opportunities and to rethink services and programmes. NPOs with poor crisis and risk management strategies and practices were most at risk of closure during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, NPOs have proved to have resilience in their ability to pivot and adapt services and programmes. Emotional support for staff combined with staff passion fostered a collective organisation culture of teamwork and commitment to their jobs despite the challenges and in some cases, reduced salaries. Integrating technology in service delivery was crucial for NPO survival. During a crisis, a hybrid model of online and face-to-face services can be provided and may be the new normal of rendering services. Donor fatigue is a concern considering the financial shocks from the external environment and marked by the economic downturn in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study concludes by providing five suggestions for future research, namely, 1) the cost-benefit of rendering services online, 2) donor fatigue, 3) Government support offered to NPOs during the COVID-19 pandemic, 4) compulsory COVID-19 vaccination in the workplace and 5) the integration of technology in poor socio-economic environment.
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    Open Access
    Developing a leadership framework for improving construction business organisation performance in South Africa
    (2022) Alade, Kehinde Temitope; Windapo, Abimbola Olukemi
    The South African construction industry is experiencing challenging times, like its counterparts globally, which has led to the failure of known large contractors. While some studies have suggested different reasons for this, a stream of scholars argued that company leadership contributes significantly to the organisation's performance. Studies on leadership in construction have mainly been undertaken at project level, considering that construction organisations are project-based. This study examined the leadership of construction organisations and whether the traits, skills, role, style and strategic decisions of company leaders impacted on the long-term performance and sustainability of contracting firms in South Africa. The main question investigated in this study is: what combination of leadership traits, skills, style, role, and strategic decisions results in superior and sustainable construction organisation performance, when moderated by strategic decisions of CEO/company leadership? The study draws from theoretical perspectives, namely the ‘upper echelons' theory, strategic leadership theory, and the Full Range Leadership Model (FRLM), to develop a conceptual framework. A convergent mixed-method research design was used to advance the investigation. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with purposively selected construction company leaders of large contracting firms in the Western Cape, in positions of Group Chairman, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) or Managing Director in major building construction, civil engineering, or geo-technical companies of good repute. The survey instrument was pretested by construction company leaders before distribution to respondents and the Crobach Alpha test was used in testing the reliability of the study responses. The cidb provided the database of the construction leaders and a survey of contractors listed in Grades 7-9 of the cidb Register of Contractors was conducted. The responses of the samples on the survey question raised on their position also attests to this. At the end of the survey period between April and September 2020, 257 responses were received, representing 56.86% response rate. The data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics, including Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), to validate the hypothesis developed that construction company leaders positively impact organisational performance through their strategic decisions on project management, change, and innovation and investment. In addition, the study also tested the hypothesis that strategic decisions mediate the relationship between construction companies' leadership components, characteristics, and construction organisation performance. The findings of this study reveal that decisions on change and innovation have the most impact to prevent business failure, and for construction organisation performance. Whilst there are other internal and external factors that may contribute to a firm's business outcomes, the findings of the study explain that the attributes of construction business leaders and their strategic decisions play a significant role in construction company leadership and construction organisation's outcomes. The leadership of construction companies is expected to be exhibit transformational qualities, cast visions, channel new opportunities, and reposition their companies according to the current and future economic situations. The gap between expectations and performance must thus be filled by leadership through their strategic decisions that are premeditated and calculated towards the expectations and visions of the construction companies. The study thus contributes to knowledge in leadership and construction research by demonstrating how the multi-dimensions of company leadership impact construction business organisation performance. The integration of leadership personality traits, skills, style, role, and strategic decisions provides a better measure of how leadership impacts organisational performance. The leadership framework developed from the study's findings made explicit the leadership traits, skills, style and strategic roles that would assist construction company leaders to operate their organisations sustainably and devise effective succession plans. The components of the leadership framework include the strategic leadership roles that construction organisational leaders must play, using catalytic leadership skills, transformational and transactional leadership approaches and inherent leadership traits, which could be developed through education, career experiences, mentoring and training. The study is limited to South Africa, which has implications for the generalisability of results.
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    Mental health leadership and patient access to care: a public–private initiative in South Africa
    (BioMed Central, 2017-09-06) Szabo, Christopher P; Fine, Jennifer; Mayers, Pat; Naidoo, Shan; Zabow, Tuviah
    Background: Mental health leadership is a critical component of patient access to care. More specifically, the ability of mental health professionals to articulate the needs of patients, formulate strategies and engage meaningfully at the appropriate level in pursuit of resources. This is not a skill set routinely taught to mental health professionals. Methods: A public–private mental health leadership initiative, emanating from a patient access to care programme, was developed with the aim of building leadership capacity within the South African public mental health sector. The express aim was to equip health care professionals with the requisite skills to more effectively advocate for their patients. The initiative involved participants from various sites within South Africa. Inclusion was based on the proposal of an ongoing “project”, i.e. a clinician-initiated service development with a multidisciplinary focus. The projects were varied in nature but all involved identification of and a plan for addressing an aspect of the participants’ daily professional work which negatively impacted on patient care due to unmet needs. Six such projects were included and involved 15 participants, comprising personnel from psychiatry, psychology, occupational therapy and nursing. Each project group was formally mentored as part of the initiative, with mentors being senior professionals with expertise in psychiatry, public health and nursing. The programme design thus provided a unique practical dimension in which skills and learnings were applied to the projects with numerous and diverse outcomes. Results: Benefits were noted by participants but extended beyond the individuals to the health institutions in which they worked and the patients that they served. Participants acquired both the skills and the confidence which enabled them to sustain the changes that they themselves had initiated in their institutions. The initiative gave impetus to the inclusion of public mental health as part of the curriculum for specialist training. Conclusions: Despite the significant adverse social and economic costs of mental illness, psychiatric and related services receive a low level of priority within the health care system. Ensuring that mental health receives the recognition and the resources it deserves requires that mental health care professionals become effective advocates through mental health leadership.
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    Mental health leadership and patient access to care: a public–private initiative in South Africa
    (2017) Szabo, Christopher Paul; Fine, Jennifer; Mayers, Pat; Naidoo, Shan; Zabow, Tuviah
    BACKGROUND: Mental health leadership is a critical component of patient access to care. More specifically, the ability of mental health professionals to articulate the needs of patients, formulate strategies and engage meaningfully at the appropriate level in pursuit of resources. This is not a skill set routinely taught to mental health professionals. METHODS: A public-private mental health leadership initiative, emanating from a patient access to care programme, was developed with the aim of building leadership capacity within the South African public mental health sector. The express aim was to equip health care professionals with the requisite skills to more effectively advocate for their patients. The initiative involved participants from various sites within South Africa. Inclusion was based on the proposal of an ongoing "project", i.e. a clinician-initiated service development with a multidisciplinary focus. The projects were varied in nature but all involved identification of and a plan for addressing an aspect of the participants' daily professional work which negatively impacted on patient care due to unmet needs. Six such projects were included and involved 15 participants, comprising personnel from psychiatry, psychology, occupational therapy and nursing. Each project group was formally mentored as part of the initiative, with mentors being senior professionals with expertise in psychiatry, public health and nursing. The programme design thus provided a unique practical dimension in which skills and learnings were applied to the projects with numerous and diverse outcomes. RESULTS: Benefits were noted by participants but extended beyond the individuals to the health institutions in which they worked and the patients that they served. Participants acquired both the skills and the confidence which enabled them to sustain the changes that they themselves had initiated in their institutions. The initiative gave impetus to the inclusion of public mental health as part of the curriculum for specialist training. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the significant adverse social and economic costs of mental illness, psychiatric and related services receive a low level of priority within the health care system. Ensuring that mental health receives the recognition and the resources it deserves requires that mental health care professionals become effective advocates through mental health leadership.
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    Performance management in times of change: experiences of implementing a performance assessment system in a district in South Africa
    (BioMed Central, 2018-09-14) Nxumalo, Nonhlanhla; Goudge, Jane; Gilson, Lucy; Eyles, John
    Background Health systems globally are under pressure to ensure value for money, and the people working within the system determine the extent and nature of health services provided. A performance assessment (PA); an important component of a performance management system (PMS) is deemed important at improving the performance of human resources for health. An effective PA motivates and improves staff engagement in their work. The aim of this paper is to describe the experiences of implementing a PA practice at a district in South Africa. It highlights factors that undermine the intention of the process and reflects on factors that can enable implementation to improve the staff performance for an effective and efficient district health service. Methods Data was collected through in-depth interviews, observations and reflective engagements with managers at a district in one of the Provinces in South Africa. The study examined the managers’ experiences of implementing the PA at the district level. Results Findings illuminate that a range of factors influence the implementation of the PA system. Most of it is attributed to context and organizational culture including management and leadership capacity. The dominance of autocratic approaches influence management and supervision of front-line managers. Management and leadership capacity is constrained by factors such as insufficient management skills due to lack of training. The established practice of recruiting from local communities facilitates patronage - compromising supervisor-subordinate relationships. In addition, organizational constraints and the constant policy changes and demands have compromised the implementation of the overall Performance Management and Development System (PMDS) – indirectly affecting the assessment component. Conclusion To strengthen district health services, there should be improvement of processes that enhance the performance of the health system. Implementation of the PA system relies on the extent of management skills at the local level. There is a need to develop managers who have the ability to manage in a transforming and complex environment. This means developing both hard skills such as planning, co-ordination and monitoring and soft skills where one is able to focus on relationships and communication, therefore allowing collaborative and shared management as opposed to authoritarian approaches.
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    Testing the contextual Interaction theory in a UHC pilot district in South Africa
    (2022-03-15) Michel, Janet; Mohlakoana, Nthabiseng; Bärnighausen, Till; Tediosi, Fabrizio; Evans, David; McIntyre, Di; Bressers, Hans T A; Tanner, Marcel
    Background World-wide, there is growing universal health coverage (UHC) enthusiasm. The South African government began piloting policies aimed at achieving UHC in 2012. These UHC policies have been and are being rolled out in the ten selected pilot districts. Our study explored policy implementation experiences of 71 actors involved in UHC policy implementation, in one South African pilot district using the Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT) lens. Method Our study applied a two-actor deductive theory of implementation, Contextual Interaction Theory (CIT) to analyse 71 key informant interviews from one National Health Insurance (NHI) pilot district in South Africa. The theory uses motivation, information, power, resources and the interaction of these to explain implementation experiences and outcomes. The research question centred on the utility of CIT tenets in explaining the observed implementation experiences of actors and outcomes particularly policy- practice gaps. Results All CIT central tenets (information, motivation, power, resources and interactions) were alluded to by actors in their policy implementation experiences, a lack or presence of these tenets were explained as either a facilitator or barrier to policy implementation. This theory was found as very useful in explaining policy implementation experiences of both policy makers and facilitators. Conclusion A central tenet that was present in this context but not fully captured by CIT was leadership. Leadership interactions were revealed as critical for policy implementation, hence we propose the inclusion of leadership interactions to the current CIT central tenets, to become motivation, information, power, resources, leadership and interactions of all these.
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    The influence of power and actor relations on priority setting and resource allocation practices at the hospital level in Kenya: a case study
    (2016) Barasa, Edwine W; Cleary, Susan; English, Mike; Molyneux, Sassy
    Abstract Background Priority setting and resource allocation in healthcare organizations often involves the balancing of competing interests and values in the context of hierarchical and politically complex settings with multiple interacting actor relationships. Despite this, few studies have examined the influence of actor and power dynamics on priority setting practices in healthcare organizations. This paper examines the influence of power relations among different actors on the implementation of priority setting and resource allocation processes in public hospitals in Kenya. Methods We used a qualitative case study approach to examine priority setting and resource allocation practices in two public hospitals in coastal Kenya. We collected data by a combination of in-depth interviews of national level policy makers, hospital managers, and frontline practitioners in the case study hospitals (n = 72), review of documents such as hospital plans and budgets, minutes of meetings and accounting records, and non-participant observations in case study hospitals over a period of 7 months. We applied a combination of two frameworks, Norman Long’s actor interface analysis and VeneKlasen and Miller’s expressions of power framework to examine and interpret our findings Results The interactions of actors in the case study hospitals resulted in socially constructed interfaces between: 1) senior managers and middle level managers 2) non-clinical managers and clinicians, and 3) hospital managers and the community. Power imbalances resulted in the exclusion of middle level managers (in one of the hospitals) and clinicians and the community (in both hospitals) from decision making processes. This resulted in, amongst others, perceptions of unfairness, and reduced motivation in hospital staff. It also puts to question the legitimacy of priority setting processes in these hospitals. Conclusions Designing hospital decision making structures to strengthen participation and inclusion of relevant stakeholders could improve priority setting practices. This should however, be accompanied by measures to empower stakeholders to contribute to decision making. Strengthening soft leadership skills of hospital managers could also contribute to managing the power dynamics among actors in hospital priority setting processes.