Abstract:
BACKGROUND: The aim of public service departments in South Africa is to improve service
delivery through the transformation and improvement of human resources and the
improvement of service delivery practices. Furthermore, it is important for the public service
sector in South Africa to improve the quality of its service delivery, not only by comparing its
performance with other sectors within South Africa but also by positioning itself amongst the
best in the world. This can be achieved by benchmarking with other global industries and by
implementing the most recent competitive intelligence strategies, tools and techniques. The
environment of the public service organisations consists of competitive forces that impact the
functioning of these organisations.
OBJECTIVES: This article focuses on proposing competitive intelligence-related strategies, tools
and techniques for gathering and analysing information in the public service departments in
South Africa in order to enhance service delivery.
METHOD: The study was qualitative in nature and was divided into two components,
namely, (1) theoretical – through an extensive review of the literature and (2) empirical – an
ethnographic study at the chosen public service department, the Department of Home Affairs
(DHA). Ethnographic interviews with management-level staff, focus groups and document
analysis were used to obtain adequate information to determine the current state of public
service delivery in South Africa.
RESULTS: The results of the study was the development of a new competitive intelligencerelated
framework for gathering and analysing information, and it represents a formal and
systematic process of informing managers in public service departments about critical issues
that these departments face or are likely to experience in future.
CONCLUSION: The strategic planning tools and techniques of this framework will fill the gap
that exists in public service departments. Once this framework has been implemented, it
could assist these departments to improve service delivery to its citizens.
