The impact of training and development on employee performance and service delivery at a local municipality in South Africa

  • Received February 15, 2022;
    Accepted August 30, 2022;
    Published October 13, 2022
  • Author(s)
  • DOI
    http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.20(4).2022.04
  • Article Info
    Volume 20 2022, Issue #4, pp. 42-51
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There is a growing concern about the lack of skilled municipal employees who can deliver essential services to under-resourced local communities in South Africa. However, coaching and mentoring appear underutilized to train municipal employees to improve service delivery to local communities. The study aims to investigate whether coaching and mentoring could capacitate municipal employees whose performance appraisal reveals a lack of skills to provide essential services. A cross-sectional research design was adopted to conduct a survey. The target population comprised 265 municipal employees, and a stratified random sample of 115 employees completed a questionnaire. The employees held positions of general managers, general assistants, and administrators, with varied years of experience. Cronbach’s Alpha indicated an overall high 0.8 questionnaire reliability score.
Using a quantitative method, responses from municipal employees were collected to examine their perceptions of the influence of training and development on employee performance and service delivery. Hypotheses were tested using the bivariant inferential statistical tests of correlation (r) and Chi-square (χ2). The results indicated that training and development were more likely to improve employee performance. Furthermore, the results showed that trained employees were more likely to improve service delivery. In particular, coaching and mentoring could be used to improve performance. Therefore, the study found that the municipality was not providing employees with relevant training and development to enable them to address poor service delivery. Finally, the study recommends that the municipality invests in training and development to enrich employees with new skills and knowledge to improve the quality of service delivery.

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    • Table 1. Target population and sample distribution
    • Table 2. Questionnaire reliability scores
    • Table 3. Frequencies and percentages of education levels of respondents
    • Table 4. Association between training and development and employee performance
    • Table 5. Relationship between coaching, mentoring, and employee performance
    • Table 6. Association between training and development and service delivery
    • Conceptualization
      Khuselwa Nama
    • Investigation
      Khuselwa Nama, Baphiwe Daweti, Tatenda Chikukwa
    • Methodology
      Khuselwa Nama, Baphiwe Daweti, Melanie Lourens
    • Project administration
      Khuselwa Nama, Baphiwe Daweti, Melanie Lourens, Tatenda Chikukwa
    • Resources
      Khuselwa Nama, Baphiwe Daweti
    • Writing – original draft
      Khuselwa Nama, Baphiwe Daweti, Tatenda Chikukwa
    • Writing – review & editing
      Khuselwa Nama, Baphiwe Daweti, Melanie Lourens, Tatenda Chikukwa
    • Funding acquisition
      Baphiwe Daweti, Melanie Lourens
    • Supervision
      Baphiwe Daweti, Melanie Lourens
    • Software
      Melanie Lourens