Abstract:
Public sector organisations play a critical role in many countries. Central to the
performance of these organisations is the effort of strategy implementation that
enables organisations fulfil their mandates and realise goals that generally lend
themselves to societal improvement. The failures of such organisations due to
poor strategy implementation, therefore have far-reaching consequences for a kaleidoscope
of stakeholders, not least of all, the people. Curiously, strategy implementation
studies are mostly descriptive and tend to focus on how it takes place
rather than on issues that encumber the task. Moreover, strategy implementation
studies are predominantly conducted in the context of the private sector rather
than the public sector. Departing from this norm, this study investigates strategy
implementation barriers and how these are overcome in selected South African
public sector organisations. A qualitative research design based on a multiple
case study approach was utilised for the study while data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. The study’s findings reveal that strategy implementation
barriers emanate from both the internal and external environments of organisations.
Specifically, identified barriers were primarily linked to resources,
structure, culture, politics, stakeholders, infrastructure and government regulations.
The study bears important lessons for management practice in public sector
organisations as practical remedies deployed by the studied organisations to
overcome some of the identified barriers are also expounded.
