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Flow of information in DHA
Information is the key to effective decision making, and in order for managers to make decisions about what needs to be done, where, how, and by whom, they must have information on the amount of resources available, the quality of these resources, and the alternatives for deploying them (Minnaar & Bekker, 2005: 97). Furthermore, organisational decision making and the functioning of the organisation in general, is impacted by the manner in which power and authority is manifest within the organisation and this is evident in the structure of the organisation.
In bureaucratic, hierarchical structures such as DHA, organisational power focuses on subordination and it promotes loyalty to the “boss” rather than the specific goals and outcomes of the organisation. The activities and functioning of the individuals in these structures are related to rules and regulations of the organisation and not necessarily to the goals and objectives. Several staff members who I interviewed in this study also confirmed this situation and stating that, “they had to comply with the regulations.” In most cases, this hampered effective flow of information required either for decision making, or to enhance the functioning of interrelated departments (EI 12/05/08; EI 14/05/08; EI 15/05/08; EI 20/05/08; EI 17/06/08).
I found that the organisational structure, as identified in Figure 4.1 and each department’s individual structure, do not seem to make room for adequate liaison positions, cross-unit committees, integrator roles and formal structures for coordination between subunits in the organisation. These are the instances when information that is required can be transmitted easily within the organisation. Even in instances where these structures are available, they do not seem to work because employees feel that they have power as long as they are in possession of some information that others do not have. This was made evident in the statement, “Knowledge is power,” (EI 12/05/08). I also found many documents marked ‘confidential’ were kept in the offices of managers with nobody else having access to them. The contents of these documents were not of a sensitive or secret in nature, and I was able to use these documents for my study, but internal staff had no access to them.
The flow of information in DHA is further complicated by the lack of a sharing culture in the organisation, and inadequate communication channel. During my interviews with staff it became evident that a, “hoarding culture of staff, lack of sharing and little interaction,” (EI 20/05/08) was prevalent. Staff also indicated that the “filtering of information is not carried through to lower levels of staff by supervisors,” (EI 20/05/08). Staff relied on their supervisors to pass on valuable information but they were, “kept in the dark of what was happening in the organisation,” (FN 29/05/08). This seemed to be confirmed in an interview with management staff, where I was informed that, a “management information system was required as a matter of urgency as we cannot find information to respond to important issues. There are also no records or databases to retrieve such information.
It takes very long to locate the required information from interrelated departments as no formal communication channel is available to speed up the process,” (EI 17/06/08).
Senior staff also reported that, “the flow of information is fragmented at present,” and they wanted to know, “how can we make the flow of information less fragmented within the existing structure?” at DHA (EI 22/05/08). It was also interesting to note that senior staff acknowledged that, “too many hierarchical levels in the DHA were causing communication problems, inefficiencies, delayed decision-making and bureaucracy,” (EI 19/05/08). Minnaar & Bekker (2005) suggest that it is the nature of bureaucracies to suppress the willing sharing of information because it provides the individual manager with a sense of power and control over this information. I found that this statement held true for the situation at DHA.
The flow of information in an organisation can have an impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of its activities and operations.
INTERACTION PATTERNS IN DHA
Face-to-face interaction is usually seen as an important form of communication that is prevalent in most organisations. It has been discovered that most managers in Public Services spend a large portion of their day giving and receiving information, and that most of this giving and receiving takes place in face-to-face interactions (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2006: 339). I found this to be true in the case of DHA where, “most of their senior staff spend up to sixty percent of their day in meetings,” (EI 19/05/08). A major part of the managers’ day is spent responding to requests for information within these environments, hence they are seen as being reactive and more time is spent responding to these information requests than actually initiating requests.
These interaction patterns can be extremely diverse and are often informal rather than official (Denhardt & Denhardt, 2006: 339). At DHA, I was able to establish that staff rarely try to make sense of situations or problems, they merely react to them (FN 19/05/08). Informal socialisation between departments is also not common practice and the silo-functioning departments, “do not promote interaction. This leads to problems and lack of competition between departments or business units. Hence, there is no motivation to enhance performance internally,” (EI 24/06/08). The lack of interaction between staff and departments, “makes it very difficult for effective skills transfer and sharing of organisational insights and ideas,” (EI 20/05/08). This situation is further compounded by the vague and complicated reporting lines that I noticed within departments (FN 27/05/08).
According to Gupta & Govindarajan (1991: 779), interaction by means of socialisation can be a very useful means for an individual to learn what behaviours and perspectives are customary and desirable in the organisation’s work environment.
It can also be helpful for building a sense of identification and commitment to the organisation as a whole and not just focussing on a specific sub-unit in which one is operating. Such forms of socialising are created through job rotations, staff development programs and management development programs. Such programs would include participants from all service units attending the program so that their values and norms become closely aligned with those of the entire organisation rather than just that of their individual subunit. At DHA staff at the branches and the remote locations have a “head office mentality,” and “expect staff at head office to sort out all problems and issues that they cannot deal with. Hence become reliant of others doing the work and consequently do not take responsibility for their activities,” (EI 24/06/08).
Furthermore, much of the interaction and communication patterns are that of lateral interaction, where managers interact with managers on the same rank. The interaction of senior managers with lower level staff and staff from different departments or business units was not noticed at DHA during my ethnographic study. The reason for this can be claimed to be, “because senior staff feel that they are capable of doing everything without the assistance from other departments that have the skills and competencies,” (FN 12 /05/08). Discussions with senior staff revealed that, “staff are internally focused, territorial and fear job losses therefore they do not interact, and share ideas and information with other staff and other departments,” (EI 20/05/08). Effective interpersonal communication and interaction is essential in a service delivery environment, as this is the means via which staff can correctly interpret and confirm the messages and needs of the customers and also the processes and activities that are needed to be performed in the department. A lack of interpersonal interaction/communication skills can mean that staff would be insensitive to the problems, information requests and enquiries that they receive from their customers, which would result in them not listening properly to what exactly is being said (Bryson, 2006: 199).
At DHA the interaction with customers is not one of effective service motivation or delivery. Staff are more focused on the processes and procedures that have to be followed rather than the customer and their needs, and legitimate rights to the services that they offer. This lack of customer orientation has resulted in the customer being viewed as “guilty until proven innocent” and this is what produces irate and dissatisfied customers (EI 24/06/08). Proper communication and interpretation of each customer’s needs is essential to overcome this situation.
1 INTRODUCTION AND PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.1 INTRODUCTION
1.2 THE NEED FOR THE STUDY
1.3 THE STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
1.4 VALUE OF THE STUDY
1.5 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
1.6 RELATED LITERATURE
1.7 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
1.8 DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS AND EXPLANATION OF ABBREVIATIONS
1.9 FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY
1.10 ETHICAL STATEMENT
2 COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE IN ORGANISATIONS
2.1 INTRODUCTION
2.2 WHAT IS COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE?
2.3 NEED FOR CI IN ORGANISATIONS
2.4 BENEFITS OF CI IN ORGANISATIONS
2.5 IMPLEMENTING CI IN ORGANISATIONS
2.6 CI TOOLS AND STRATEGIES
2.7 CI FOR THE SERVICE SECTOR
2.8 CI FOR THE PUBLIC SERVICE SECTOR
2.9 SUMMARY
3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 INTRODUCTION
3.2 RESEARCH APPROACHES
3.3 A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHOD
3.4 ETHNOGRPAHIC RESEARCH
3.5 DESIGNING THE ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH PROCESS
3.6 RESEARCH REPORT WRITING AND LEGEND USED
3.7 ETHICS IN ETHNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
3.8 SUMMARY
4 PUBLIC SERVICES AND SERVICE DELIVERY IN SOUTH AFRICA
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 STRUCTURE OF GOVERNMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA
4.3 PUBLIC SERVICES AND ADMINISTRATION
4.4 DEPARTMENT OF HOME AFFAIRS (DHA) AS A CHOSEN PUBLIC SERVICE DEPARTMENT
4.5 SUMMARY
5 CI FOR PUBLIC SERVICE DELIVERY
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.2 NEW INTERVENTIONS INITIATED BY DHA TO IMPROVE SERVICE DELIVERY
5.3 KEY INTELLIGENCE NEEDS OF DHA
5.4 FORMS OF COMPETITION IDENTIFIED IN DHA
5.5. CI TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES ALREADY BEING USED AT DHA WITHOUT REALISING IT
5.6 SUMMARY
6 CI TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR IMPROVING SERVICE DELIVERY AT DHA
6.1 INTRODUCTION
6.2 COMPETITIVE REALITIES AT DHA
6.3 CI TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES FOR DHA
6.4 SUMMARY
7 RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
7.1 INTRODUCTION
7.2 OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
7.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
7.4 CRITICAL FINDINGS OF THE STUDY
7.5 RECOMMENDATIONS
7.6 CONCLUSIONS OF THE STUDY
7.7 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
7.8 ACTIVITIES ALREADY IMPLEMENTED AT DHA AS A RESULT OF THIS STUDY
7.9 FUTURE RESEARCH
7.10 SUMMARY
8 BIBLIOGRAPHY
