2011-NMMU-Research-Report - Research Management - Nelson ...

120 NMMU Research and Innovation Report 2011 - Doctorates
Bernadette Nambi
Business Administration Development Studies
A performance management model for universities in Uganda.
The rationale for institutional performance management is to
satisfy stakeholder expectations by ensuring effective and efficient
service delivery. Most of the previous research on institutional
performance management has been conducted in a "Western
world" context and was aimed at organisations with a profitmaking
motive. The study addressed institutional performance
management at public universities in a developing country (Uganda),
and as such made an original contribution to the existing body of
knowledge. Public universities in Uganda face strong competition
from a proliferation of private tertiary educational institutions and
need to guard against being perceived as mediocre.
The study was conducted at four public universities in Uganda
and involved interviews with senior administrators and heads of
department, as well as a survey among staff at various levels at
the four institutions. It also investigated the extent to which public
universities in Uganda implemented performance management
and the challenges faced by these universities in implementing
performance management. Key factors for successful performance
management implementation as well as acceptable performance
indicators were also identified.
The study revealed that public universities in Uganda typically lacked
a formal performance management environment or performance
culture, provided limited scope for employee engagement and
communication, and faced structural and institutional governance
challenges. The study has implications for policy development,
strategic planning, performance management implementation
and continuous improvement, not only for universities in Uganda,
but for African universities in general.
Jacqueline Okiria Ofwono
An evaluation of the implementation of decentralisation of the
World Bank’s operations on poverty reduction in Uganda.
This thesis scrutinises, by way of a detailed and critically nuanced
case study, the strategic shift by the World Bank to a decentralised
approach as outlined in the organisation’s Strategic Compact. Central
to the case study is an evaluation of the implementation of the
strategy with regard to poverty trends in Uganda. The candidate
questions the contention of a number of critics that the World
Bank’s decentralisation approach in Uganda has been a signal of
failure.
The thesis employs a primarily qualitative approach and it includes
two central and interlocking sections: the first comprises an extensive
review of the relevant literature and an accompanying conceptual
framework followed by a methodological and methods discussion;
whilst the second section builds on the concepts in the first section
and develops an analytical case study of Uganda.
The main findings are that the World Bank has not been ineffective
in the delivery of its mission and its decentralisation strategy, and
that the implementation of the Strategic Compact, while not having
a direct causal relationship with poverty alleviation, did have a
correlative impact on the reduction of poverty in Uganda.
The study also provides informative material on the changes in
World Bank strategy with regard to the Bank’s office in Uganda
with particular reference to shifts in strategies, policies and
procedures, as well as accompanying organisational changes. This
level of analysis feeds into the contemporary body of scholarship
on the discourses and practices of the Bank in its national and
international operations.