Leadership development for women at the department of home affairs

• Main Author: Mlokothi, Mbalentle
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10539/26079

A research report submitted to the Wits School of Governance, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master’s Degree of Management in the field of Public and Development Management Johannesburg February 2017 === The researcher‟s main purpose of the study was to investigate reasons and challenges contributing to the slow progression of women into top leadership positions at the National Department of Home Affairs. Secondly, it aimed to present findings on reasons for the slow progression of women into top management positions; thirdly, to analyse and interpret the findings; and lastly, to recommend strategies for consideration. In the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), the researcher identified a problem of slow progression of women into top leadership positions. Currently, there are more women than men in the Department but this majority number of women in the Department is seen to be occupying the lowest occupational levels compared to their male counterparts. There is a significant improvement of women representation at senior management level but representation is still skewed at top management level. For example, at top management level the DHA comprises 12.5 per cent women compared to 87.5 per cent men. This is despite the available laws developed by government to close the gender gap and to eliminate gender discrimination. The research methodology employed for the purposes of this study was of a qualitative nature and the findings were presented in the narrative rather than in numbers. An interpretivist social science approach underpinned by phenomenology was adopted for this study. The data collection methods utilised for this study were participant observations, interviews and document analysis. These methods were also qualitative in their nature. In this study a combination of primary and secondary data was used. The original data collected by the researcher through interviews was used as primary data. Data collected by someone other than a researcher, which is secondary data, was also used. Examples of secondary data used were departmental policies, departmental reports, plans, minutes of the meetings, Acts and lastly previous research work on similar studies was also reviewed. The type of sampling used was non-probability sampling. The researcher also used special selection criteria to identify the most suitable individuals considered to be representative of the population to participate in the study. There were recurring themes that emerged during the data collection and the most common themes were around policy development where unavailability of gender policies and/or policy advocacy sessions was mentioned as a contributing factor, while implementation and monitoring and evaluation of these policies was mentioned as another challenge. The lack or absence of career development and succession plans in particular was described as contributing to slow progression and poor retention of women in the Department. Lack of reasonable accommodation of women‟s reproductive roles, gender discrimination and poor governance also came out strongly as serious issues that aggravate the problem in the Department. It was concluded that unless this issue is addressed, the lack of progression of women in the DHA will persist. === MT 2018