A Comparative Analysis of Zambian Governmental Institutions Using the HPO Framework

Abstract

It is generally accepted that, to move the governmental sector toward better performance, governmental agencies need to adopt high-performance management techniques. One such technique is the HPO (high-performance organization) Framework, which has been applied successfully in many countries. However, most of these applications were in developed countries and in the private sector, which raises the question of whether the framework would work equally well in an African governmental setting. Specifically, this study posits, and proposes to answer, the following three research questions: (a) Can the HPO Framework be used to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of Zambian governmental institutions and yield tangible recommendations to achieve sustainable high performance? (b) If so, can the performance of these institutions subsequently be shown to improve over time? (c) What is the role of the institutions' managers in a successful implementation of the framework? To explore these considerations, the HPO Framework was applied at three Zambian governmental institutions. In a longitudinal research set-up, the application and accompanying organizational results were tracked. The study results showed that the HPO Framework is indeed applicable in the Zambian governmental sector and can significantly contribute to it becoming high-performing. However, the study's results also made clear that full commitment from management has to be ensured before embarking on an HPO transition. This research is the first of its kind: a longitudinal study of the workings and effects of an HPO framework, in the context of a developing country's governmental sector.

Achieving high performance at Zambia's Competition and Consumer Protection Commission

“…Despite these studies, thus far no scientifically validated framework of what constitutes a high‐performing Zambian organization—or how such an organization could be created in the Zambian context, whether in the public or private sector—has been developed (de Waal, Goedegebuure, & Mulimbika, ). To address this gap, a study was conducted to evaluate whether de Waal's HPO Framework of 35 HPO characteristics divided among five factors (de Waal, ), which was developed according to data collected worldwide, could be applied to help strengthen Zambian governmental institutions (de Waal & Mulimbika, ). As part of this research, questionnaires were collected from a Zambian ministry in order to apply a confirmatory factor analysis to validate the five factors of the HPO Framework.…”

Impact of structure and culture on organizational performance: the case of Uganda’s High Court

“…We, therefore, use this framework to measure and evaluate the performance of the Ugandan juridical system, and specifically the High Court. Another reason to use the HPO framework is that it has been applied previously both in the public sector (de Waal and Linker 2021;de Waal and Mulimbika 2017;de Waal and Wang 2017;Kalimullah et al 2019) and in Africa (Bagorogoza et al 2013;de Waal and Chachage 2011;de Waal and Olale 2019;Honyenuga et al 2014).…”

Success factors of high performance organization transformations

“…de Waal (2018b) described the application of the HPO Framework at three governmental institutions in Zambia (see also de Waal and Mulimbika, 2017). Of these three, one institutionthe Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC)managed to become an HPO.…”

“…A framework which was developed in 2007 and since then has seen constant and consistent development work is de Waal's HPO Framework (de Waal, 2006/2010. It is, to the knowledge of this author, the only HPO Framework which has been repeatedly evaluated on its workings and (positive) results in practice (see for example de Waal and Frijns, 2011;Honyenuga et al, 2014;de Waal and Mulimbika, 2017;de Waal and de Haas, 2018), and for whom causality between the framework and increased organizational performance has been shown (de Waal and Goedegebuure, 2017). We will take the literature on the application of this framework in practice as a source for identifying the success factors for an HPO transformation, and therefore, we briefly describe the development and structure of this framework in this section (taken from de Waal, 2018a).…”