An exploratory survey of competency frameworked managerial talent for service delivery in local government

Abstract

Competent governance is an imperative driver of great organizations. However it appears that in South Africa, incompetent governance is making a significant contribution to social fragmentation and economic decline. This study builds a new theory for competent governance using a competency-based positivist theoretical paradigm. The ubiquitous competency theory was first postulated by the illustrious Harvard Psychologist David McClelland in 1973. Contemporary management sciences use competency-based management for strategic configuration. Competency-based strategic configuration promotes effective and superior governance by aligning human resources to the business strategy. The case study design utilizes a quantitative methodology to collect data from a theoretically selected sample of middle and executive managers at the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The conceptual domain for competent governance is identified in the literature review chapter. An electronic survey with seventy-nine items was conducted on a sample of middle and executive managers in the municipality. Two criterion referenced correlation matrices indicated satisfactory predictive validity. Factor analysis with Promax Rotation in IBM’s SPSS version 24 yielded a new theory for competent governance. Cronbach Alpha reliability testing indicated that the results were dependable. Fuchs’s Competent Governance Theory makes the assumption that competent governance has two criterion-referenced constructual frameworks, five conceptual frameworks, and a dictionary of competencies that measure superior- and effective-governance.