Strategic Management as a vehicle for Sustainable Socio-Economic Development: An Empirical Study at a Municipality in South Africa

Abstract

The exercise of strategic management is an essential aspect as it conjures up a glossy picture of the expectations of the public organisations. However, currently it lacks an intricate arrangement of formal and casual handling of work for it to yield maximum output in the sphere of South African municipalities. Although strategic management is not alien to the facilitation of municipalities’ development, the existing literature does not provide a rigorous and structured conceptualisation of strategic management in the context of sustainable socio-economic development of the municipalities. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore the significance of strategic management in sustaining socio-economic development at selected municipality in South Africa. The paper adopted exploratory research design and qualitative research approach. The target population was 26 municipal officials at the selected municipality. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. This study made use of the qualitative and in-depth interviews in collecting data. The findings indicated that the strategic management plays a significant in the governance of sustainable socio-economic development of the municipality. The results revealed that strategic plans of municipalities were properly implemented and managed. However, further analysis of data indicated that there were constraints that hamper the execution of plans which include inadequate resources, innumerable flaws on the performance management system, non-alignment of development programmes and unskilled personnel. In relation to practical implications, the management must ensure adequate finances and infrastructure are made available in order to execute the set strategic plans.