Evaluating the effect of performance management system on employees’ performance in the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare

Abstract

The performance management system (PMS) is a performance guiding tool that has been used across all the public sector ministries to guide organizational efforts in achieving set goals. In the Ministry of Gender Equality, Poverty Eradication and Child Welfare (MGEPESW), the PMS has been in implementation since 2006 to enable the Ministry to execute its mandate due to the provision of the Act 13 of 1995 of the Public Service Act. The Ministry has experienced several challenges in its implementation of PMS, particulary the submission of performance agreement documents from individual employees (PA) and PA reviews which are critical to the success of the PMS. The study at hand aimed at assessing the effect of the PMS on employees’ performance in the MGEPESW. The study applied an embedded method of approach which entailed collected of both quantitative and qualitative data through structured and open-ended questions in a questionnaire respectively. ANOVA variance and AI-powered ATLAS.ti tool were used to analyse the data obtained. The population of the study composed of below management and management employees at the Ministry of Gender Equality, Povertry Eradication and Child Welfare. The research sample consisted of 76 employees from below management level and 6 employees at management level position. All research participants sampled provided usable questionairres during the data collection process. The data acquired in the study highlighted that the performance management system positively effected the performance of employees in the Ministry. This was supported by the fact that the PMS; motivated employees after one-on-one performance reviews, it enabled employees to understand their job expectations better, identify areas of improvement to address shortcomings etc. The major challenges to the effective implementation of PMS identified are lack of incentives linked to effective performance, lack of performance review sessions as per the stipulated in the PMS guidelines and misalignment of performance outputs to overall Ministry objectives and goals. The supervisors’ attitude towards the utilization of PMS in their functions was concluded to be a positive and receptive approach. Branching from this, several recommendations were put forth by the study; the Ministry offer training workshops to both supervisors and juniors on the effective strategies in implementing the PMS, ensure that managers and supervisors effectively execute management functions and offer incentives for effective performance.