- Title
- An examination of human resource management strategies and their contribution to effective local government systems in Zimbabwe
- Creator
- Mutongoreni, Noah Ariel https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6039-6241
- Subject
- Personnel management
- Subject
- Local government--Zimbabwe
- Date Issued
- 2015-01
- Date
- 2015-01
- Type
- Doctoral theses
- Type
- text
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/24024
- Identifier
- vital:62299
- Description
- The study sought to examine human resource management strategies and their contributions to effective local government systems in Manicaland, Zimbabwe. Local government in Zimbabwe, though being nearest to the people, is showing evidence of failure to discharge its mandate. Various factors have been used to explain the reasons behind local government‘s failures to provide services. None of these have touched on the role played by people management in ensuring local government performance. This was notwithstanding the fact that towards the last two decades of the twentieth century research emerged glorifying human resources as the source of organizational excellence. Consequently, being motivated by the fact that good people management strategies lead to excellent organizational performance, attention in this study focused on people management strategies in local government in Zimbabwe. The study adopted a mixed approach with a strong inclination towards qualitative methodology. The data was gleaned from documents from local authorities, interviews, focus group interviews and questionnaire surveys. The study focused on local authorities in Manicaland Province. The results of the study confirmed the existence of human resource management strategies in local authorities in Manicaland, Zimbabwe. The human resource management strategies have however not resulted in excellent performance of local authorities. The reason behind this is attributable to severe resource constraints. Excellent people management strategies were found to be on paper as there were no resources to support them. The dearth of resources in local authorities was found to be attributed to the economic, political, legal and social factors engulfing the local government system in Zimbabwe. Consequently, local government in Zimbabwe remain stressed and in dire need of a ―Lazarus moment‖. There is an engineer with skills to construct dams to quench the thirst souls in the city but there are no resources to construct the dams. The fireman‘s truck rushes to quench a fire outbreak only to arrive at the scene with no water. In view of this, the study recommends that the review of the local government legal framework be speeded up and more autonomy be granted to local authorities. Such a review would have a bearing on the notion of decentralization, democratization and consequently economic development. In addition, government must seriously consider setting aside a portion of its budget towards support of local authorities. v Where democratic ethos exists, there is transparency, accountability, the rule of law and responsiveness. The human resource in local government would in turn promote democracy and excellence. Other strategies such as granting of garnishing powers to local authorities as well as giving their police arresting would further nourish their resource base. When this happen people management strategies would contribute to effective local government systems in Zimbabwe. Further studies on the contribution of human resource management strategies in effective local government systems after the complete overhaul of the current legislative regime would nonetheless be of interest to researchers.
- Description
- Thesis (PhD) -- Faculty of Management and Commerce, 2015
- Format
- computer
- Format
- online resource
- Format
- application/pdf
- Format
- 1 online resource (xiv, 330 pages)
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Management and Commerce
- Language
- English
- Rights
- rights holder
- Rights
- All Rights Reserved
- Rights
- Open Access
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Collections
UFH Department of Public Administration
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Noah Ariel Mutongoreni Student Number 201315442.pdf | 3 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |