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Performance Management: Buffalo City Metro
The case study in review focuses on the performance management system or PMS of
Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality in Eastern Cape Province of South Africa uses and the
challenges surrounding said PMS system. Performance management is an organizational
approach which includes goal setting, progress checks, and feedback and evaluation for
employees work lives (Sifuna-Evelia, 2017, p. 36). Performance management systems can make
or break an organization’s overall performance since it carries heavy influence on staff
motivation and productivity. A bad performance management system can make employees feel
defeated with impossible to reach goals and incentives, or repercussions of reaching goals
because of disorganization. And example of this would be employees being assigned more work
due to being able to complete previous work faster than other workers. A good performance
management system aligns the objectives of the entity with the performance reviews and
evaluations while ensuring that goals are stimulating and reachable to drive performance
improvement (Nigro et al., 2012, pp. 25–26).
Facts
Up until 1994, the public sector in South Africa was governed by the ways of white
supremacy political cultural (Ndasana & Umejesi, 2022, p. 1). However, soon after the country
became democratic, changes were quickly made to correct this and encourage diversity in public
administration (Ndasana & Umejesi, 2022, p. 1). This included legislation being passed for
inclusion in organizational process of the public sector, including the establishment of a new
PMS that would effectively appraise performance in a well-rounded way fashion (Ndasana &
Umejesi, 2022, p. 1). A national audit report from the 2016 to 2017 year discovered that the
current PMS was not effective for cultivating better outcomes for 257 municipalities within the
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South Africa area (Ndasana & Umejesi, 2022, p. 2). With no improvement in some areas and
regression in most, the findings also revealed that several municipalities within Eastern Cape
performed badly (Ndasana & Umejesi, 2022, p. 2).
One of places with the lowest performing scores was Buffalo City Metropolitan, which
was significantly over on budget and public leaders not understanding the how to utilize the PMS
for improvement (Ndasana & Umejesi, 2022, p. 2). Lack of understanding the vital tool of the
PMS led to less organizational success and improvement, as well as poor service delivery. A
better understanding of PMS and how to use it for sufficient appraisals is important to the
municipality for better organizational success.
The study points out that due to the PMS being unbiased, and if not set up correctly with
organized metrics, can evaluate poorly performing employees better than higher performing ones
(Ndasana & Umejesi, 2022, p. 2). This can threaten the validity of the PMS and risk the trust of
the employees which can then create demotivating effects of performance review times and
outcomes. PMS organized correctly help to establish clear goals that result in wanted rewards for
workers, which in turn feel proud of the entity and their hard work (Ndasana & Umejesi, 2022, p.
3). This study used qualitative research via in person interviews from 20 interviewees in Buffalo
City Metropolitan (Ndasana & Umejesi, 2022, p. 3).
The results showed that many of the participants interviewed didn’t know or understand
how to use the PMS of Buffalo City Metropolitan. Many of the employees interviewed
complained about the PMS for not being helpful to lower ranked workers and only being
effective for higher ups (Ndasana & Umejesi, 2022, p. 4). This view showed to be a common
conception since many of the participants that were lower ranked workers criticized the PMS and
called useless. However, the managers and senior manager that were interviewed showed
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different perceptions towards the PMS, but instead blamed the lower ranked workers for not
understanding the PMS (Ndasana & Umejesi, 2022, p. 4). This is a serious issue since there is
clearly a divide between the higher ups and the staff when it comes to the PMS and how it can be
used.
One of the reasons participants that were lower ranked staff felt cheated by the system in
place was due to the many vacant supervisory positions which regular staff was having to fill in
for. Since these job responsibilities were not belonging to said staff members, they were not
being rewarded for them according to the PMS. This type of situation can lead to workers having
less time to effectively work on their actual job responsibilities, which can lead to them scoring
poorly on their performance evaluations. If that were to negatively affect a promotion, raise, or
retention of a worker, it becomes a legal and ethical issue that many workers might feel the need
to seek legal action for.
Another reason for the PMS not helping the overall success was due to it being a manual
system, instead of an electronic system. In today’s age with so many improvements towards
technological improvements, there is no reason for efficiency of a PMS to be lowered by having
to manually incorporate them and their findings. Another reason for electronic systems, and also
noted in the study, is how documents from a manual system can often be lost and this lessens the
accuracy of findings from the evaluation (Ndasana & Umejesi, 2022, p. 4). Buffalo City
Metropolitan’s PMS issues were that employees didn’t understand the PMS, vacancies in
management skewed results for hard workers, and the inefficiency of the PMS method and
format (Ndasana & Umejesi, 2022, p. 4).
Decisions
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The recommendations included the following:
•that employees should be educated on the use of PMS and how it can help organizational
success, as well as ensure this is communicated on for all levels of workers (Ndasana &
Umejesi, 2022, p. 5).
•The framework of the PMS must be changed to have clear goals that align with the goals
of the organization with clear incentives for reaching these goals (Ndasana & Umejesi,
2022, pp. 5–6).
•The PMS must be changed to an electronic format that will accurately keep track of all
documents from evaluations (Ndasana & Umejesi, 2022, p. 5).
•Managers must be held responsible for employees’ compliance with the PMS policy and
hold them accountable with performance reviews (Ndasana & Umejesi, 2022, pp. 5–6).
•Human resources must be implemented to ensure that PMS is effective and working to
improve organizational success (Ndasana & Umejesi, 2022, p. 6).
Many of the recommendations would help to improve the PMS in Buffalo City
Metropolitan Municipality. However, there is a lack of organization and clear dysfunction that
must be addressed before a PMS can truly lead to the outcomes it is capable of. The case study
showcased an issue with staffing, which led to many staff feeling that performance reviews int
the situation was not accurate or fair since they did not account for the other job responsibilities.
This can create a huge disparity among workers, and division between senior workers and lower
ranked workers. The decisions based off the recommendations would not be appropriate until the
staffing issue was fixed, or the performance reviews accounted for the extra work for workers
affected.
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Solutions
Leaders within the public sector must be held accountable for people under them and
should not blame workers they lead for the organizational issues. Matthew 20:25 through 20:28
states “But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles
exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. 26 But it
shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; 27
And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: 28 Even as the Son of man
came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (King
James Bible, 1611/1984). This verse relates to the case study since it is stating that leaders should
not be harsh or hard on people under them, but instead should lower themselves and understand
the importance of serving others. Leaders in the public sector need to put themselves in the shoes
of the workers under them, instead of judging the workers for not taking certain processes
seriously, while ignoring the organizational failures that create bad working environments.
For Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, the solution should be based around
improving the performance management system to incorporate and account for the extra job
responsibilities present for many workers due to vacancies. Performance reviews and evaluations
must be tied to the goals of the organization, but also tied to the current situations and realities
the organization is facing. Staffing is a common issue that is often hard to fix, especially within
the public sector (Bichard, 2024). In fact, many government agencies are constantly and
consistently understaffed resulting in workers having to take on more job responsibilities to fill
the need (Bichard, 2024). Due to this, PMS for public agencies should be flexible to take into
account the current daily job responsibilities, and not just that of the job description for the
position (Aguinis & Burgi-Tian, 2021). Secondly, higher ups must be humble and remain
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understanding of the level of priority that workers organize their tasks in. While it would be great
for all workers to understand the potential that a successful PMS has for an organization, it is
often not the most important priority within their daily job activities. This is why leaders would
do well to truly lower themselves and listen to what workers under them feel so they can best
know how to support them. This will help to create a better PMS that can help improve the
success of the organization based on the goals and needs of it.
Conclusion
PMS, when used correctly, have the power to be vital tools for organizational success.
However, when not organized with the correct framework, they can create extra work for
employees in a nonsensical way and divide higher ups from workers. A poorly implemented
PMS can also prove to be demotivating to workers. Buffalo City Metropolitan had many issues
with their PMS including workers not knowing how the PMS worked or how it was useful, a
manual format that created for a bad system, and too many vacancies that offset incentives and
skewed results. These issues resulted in Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality ranking as one
of the worst municipalities in South Africa. Recommendations for future decisions included
positive changes including the PMS having clear goals and incentives based on the needs and
goals of the organization, education on the PMS for workers at all levels, and an electronic
format to name a few. Further solutions for Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality include
flexible performance reviews based on current job responsibilities that account for temporary
responsibilities. Another factor to the solution would be for managers and senior managers to be
held accountable for PMS not being utilized to it’s fullest potential and to work with the workers
under them in the ways that they need to be supported. This would free up their time to be able to
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References
Aguinis, H., & Burgi-Tian, J. (2021). Measuring performance during crises and beyond: The
Performance Promoter Score. Business Horizons, 64(1), 149–160.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2020.09.001
Bichard, M. (2024). Debate: Tackling the public sector workforce crisis. Public Money and
Management/Public Money & Management, 1–2.
https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2024.2310993
King James Bible. (1984). Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 1611).
Ndasana, M., & Umejesi, I. (2022). Performance management in South Africa’s municipalities:
A case study of Buffalo City Metro. Africa’s Public Service Delivery & Performance
Review, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/apsdpr.v10i1.595
Nigro, L. G., Nigro, F. A., & Kellough, J. E. (2012). The new Public Personnel administration.
Cengage Learning.
Sifuna-Evelia, M. (2017). Human resource management practices: A Biblical Perspective.
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