Using Grounded Theory to Derive Performance Improvement Model for South African Municipalities

Abstract

The dawn of democracy in 1994 was preceded by widespread political violence in black communities across South Africa. Thirty years into the democracy, communities continue to use violent protests albeit not for political reasons but as an expression of anger and frustration over poor service delivery. To address this problem, the democratic government introduced performance management reforms. Literature shows that the success of these reforms depends on the ability of public institutions to adopt and sustain a performance-oriented culture. Therefore, the increasing wave of service delivery protests in South African Municipalities is a response to the failure of the democratic government in this regard. The debate on the causes and consequences of poor service delivery in South Africa has been raging for long. Even though there is little space to contribute on this topic, the author observed inadequate use of grounded theory as a strategy to develop empirical solutions to poor municipal performance. Therefore, this paper uses constant comparative analysis and theoretical sampling to derive empirical an empirical solution to the performance challenges engulfing the South African municipal landscape.