An exploration into the problematic public policies and the leadership challenge for socio-economic transformation in South Africa

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to explore the problematic of public policies and leadership challenges for socio-economic transformation in South Africa. The paper illustrates that policies and laws of socio-economic reform have been introduced in democratic South Africa. However, socio-economic transformation remains a challenge. Lack of trust in the leadership relationships amongst political and economic agents is pointed as a contributing factor. Hence, LE emerges as a leadership strategy to help mitigate the problem. Design/methodology/approach The paper starts by presenting the current economic situation of South Africa touching on some important economic indicators to illustrate the consequences of poor leadership in public policy implementation process. The paper then analyses the leadership challenges to drive socio-economic reforms that have been introduced in South Africa since the end of apartheid with focus on the current National Development Plan. Lack of trust in leadership is identified as a problematic factor and leadership ethos (LE) emerges as a leadership strategy to enable the building of trust in leadership for the purpose of a successful implementation of public policies. Findings Lack of trust in leadership is identified as a problematic factor contributing in the absence of cooperation and collaboration in the leadership relationship amongst public servants (from up to bottom) and citizens for the purpose of successful implementation of public policies. Hence, there is need for a new leadership paradigm that would enable the building of trust in these leadership relationships. LE emerges as such a leadership strategy. Practical implications The paper calls for an exploration into the understanding and practice of LE and its inherent critical success factors (CSFs) considered as a leadership strategy that can help drive particularly public policies implementation process. LE intends to promote moral leadership that helps public servants to build good character and thus the will to do the right thing, and mutually trusting relationship is a CSF of LE. Therefore LE enables build the much needed trust in leadership relationships for a successful organisational leadership and management. Originality/value This paper provides significant implications by identifying lack of trust as a problematic factor in the leadership relationships amongst political and economic agents in South Africa, contributing thus in the poor implementation of public policies. LE emerges as a leadership strategy that would help mitigate the problem by enabling the building, the maintenance and restoration of trust in organisational and or institutional management for a successful public policy implementation process.

Public Administration Leadership and Public Policies

“…As expected, hypothesis 6 was proven, finding that all leadership styles are significantly associated with public policy. These results align with what is stated in the literature that leadership style can be considered a critical factor in public policy implementation (Ndalamba, 2019).…”

“…From the perspective of Ndalamba (2019), critical success factors can be considered a leadership strategy that can help drive the public policy implementation process. For these authors, leadership becomes central to the implementation of public policy.…”

Unethical Leadership: Review, Synthesis and Directions for Future Research

“…We expect political uncertainty, defunct regulatory checks, nepotism and widespread corruption (Kelling et al, 2021) to weaken the social and organisational fabric. Such institutional uncertainty also reduces trust among organisational members, which could further encourage unethical leadership practices because lack of trust is considered to be one of the biggest sources of organisational misconduct and malfeasance (Ndalamba, 2019). Given the centrality of morality in unethical leadership as depicted in the prior literature (Pelletier & Bligh, 2008), however, we contend that this effect is conditional upon the extent to which leaders are morally awake.…”

Economic asymmetries and the new “markets of tomorrow”

“…This article is mainly concerned with identifying these disparities and their implications for the future (Bagul et al, 2023;Patil & Vhavale, 2023;Setiarini et al, 2023;Sharma & Bhat, 2023). Ndalamba (2019) has explored the problematic public policies and the leadership challenge for South Africa's socioeconomic transformation. Wang and Huang (2021) Brown (2015), Komac et al (2016) and Yahya et al (2021) note the critical role of landscape features as the fundamental natural factors which stimulate the organization on the whole.…”

“…This article is mainly concerned with identifying these disparities and their implications for the future (Bagul et al, 2023; Patil & Vhavale, 2023; Setiarini et al, 2023; Sharma & Bhat, 2023). Ndalamba (2019) has explored the problematic public policies and the leadership challenge for South Africa's socio‐economic transformation. Wang and Huang (2021) note the heterogeneous impact of environmental regulations on low‐carbon economic change in China and present empirical research results based on the mediation effect model.…”