An organisational justice perspective on the impact of human resource management practices on the quality of service delivery in municipalities in the Free State Province of South Africa

Abstract

How to address the apparent failure of South African municipalities to deliver service that meets citizens’ expectations, poses a major challenge. The often violent protests that have resulted in deliberate destruction of private and public property, and sometimes fatalities, have been used by the public to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with the poor quality of service received from municipalities. With all these incidents, and no visible solutions yet in place, one can bluntly say that some South African municipalities have failed to deliver quality service to citizens, and they appear to be at a loss of how to change this state of affairs. This study proposes that the poor service delivery of municipalities in South Africa can be attributed to their human resource practices, which have been rendered ineffective by political interference. Borrowing from organisational justice theory, the researcher argues that political interference in human resource management (HRM) in municipalities in South Africa will lead to low employee perceptions of HRM fairness (or justness) (PHF) in the practices of municipalities, and this, in turn, will lead to low levels of employee organisational commitment (EOC) and employee motivation (MOT), conditions which are enough to make municipal employees develop negative or unacceptable employee citizenship behaviour (ECB), which may affect the quality of service delivery (QSD) that municipalities render to customers. This theory was tested using ten (10) emergent hypotheses. The theory was partially validated with empirical data collected from nine municipalities in the Free State province. Key findings of the study point to political interference in the HRM practices of municipalities, employees’ perception of HRM practices of municipalities as largely unfair, and service delivery that does not meet citizens’ expectations. These and other findings are presented and fully discussed in this research report. The report also provides recommendations for practice and further research.