Behavioural Factors as Determinants of Effective Budgeting Process in Public Secondary Schools

A budget is an action plan that is utilized by organisations, private or public, in order to attain their objectives. Budgets are used to ensure better financial performance for organisations. Public secondary schools also prepare their budgets to plan for their income and expenditure. The purpose of the study was to identify the behavioural factors essential for an effective budgeting process in public secondary schools in Gauteng South, South Africa. To achieve this objective a structured questionnaire with two sections, A and B was developed. Section A of the questionnaire aimed to gather biographical information about the respondents, whereas Section B dealt with key issues pertaining to the budgeting process. The reliability of the questionnaire was tested using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The feedback from the questionnaire was analysed by means of Exploratory Factor Analysis through which five factors were extracted and their reliability also tested. The factor loading matrix was computed to identify appropriate items for each factor. The findings from the study indicated that for effective budgeting process to occur in public secondary schools the following behavioural factors should be embedded in the process: participation and budget control, budget planning, motivation, training and development, including co-ordination and communication. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p20

An Assessment of the Level of Occupational Stress among Police Officers in the Sebokeng Cluster

Occupational stress among police officers is an important area of research because of the realisation that less stressed police officers are more effective and they tend to stay longer with the employing department. The spinoffs of longer stay with the safety and security department are, inter alia, less training costs on replacement staff, utilisation of more experienced staff in critical safety and security areas, and organisational commitment. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 276 police officers. A stratified random sampling technique was utilised to draw units of analysis for the study. A response rate of 75% was obtained. Responses were analysed using frequency analysis. The results confirmed that police officers in the Sebokeng Cluster experienced role conflict. The findings from the study were also that police officers did not experience role overload and role ambiguity. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n1s1p25

The impact of a performance management system on service delivery in the city of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality

The article is based on a study conducted to investigate the implementation of a performance management system at the City of Johannesburg. The study uses the hypothesis that a well-designed performance management system with well-thoughtout practices and procedures can improve the delivery of services in the City of Johannesburg. In order to validate the hypothesis, empirically based questionnaires on the performance management system and service delivery were utilised. Frequency analysis, which lends itself to correlation analysis, of employees’ responses and residents’ responses was conducted using the Pearson correlation. The findings of the study reveal that managers and subordinates set objectives jointly. However, they are not participants in the evaluation of the municipality’s performance. The research indicated that the key performance areas lacked uniformity, and therefore, created silos in the municipality. The key performance indicators were developed without the involvement of the communities or employees, especially at the lower level of management. The training provided does not capacitate employees to work effectively with the balanced scorecard. The performance management system at the City of Johannesburg is not service oriented, therefore, it is suggested that a model referred to as a convergent model of service delivery-oriented performance management system be used. The aim of the creation of the convergent model could ensure that the performance management system serves as a significant measuring tool and is geared towards the effective delivery of services at all times