Improving service delivery through outsourcing

The purpose of this article is to determine whether outsourcing can be used as a tool by government institutions to improve the delivery of important services to the community. The article is exploratory in nature and involves cross-case analysis of ten case studies of outsourcing in the South Afric...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Contemporary Management 2011-01, Vol.8 (1), p.453-472
Main Authors: Ambe, I.M., Badenhorst-Weiss, J.A.
Format: Article
Language:eng ; por
Subjects:
Outsourcing
Public sector
Service delivery
Social Issues
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The purpose of this article is to determine whether outsourcing can be used as a tool by government institutions to improve the delivery of important services to the community. The article is exploratory in nature and involves cross-case analysis of ten case studies of outsourcing in the South African public sector. The article reveals that government institutions used outsourcing as a tool to capacitate themselves with the aim of improving service delivery; and their expectations in terms of additional skilled capacity and better service delivery were met. It became evident in the article that outsourcing was already being used to great effect by government institutions to improve service delivery. The article demonstrates that outsourcing cannot only be used as a measure to reduce cost, but also as an alternative service delivery tool in the public sector. Furthermore, it is recommended that outsourcing be used increasingly by government institutions, particularly at local government level, where delivery of services such as sanitation, water provision and infrastructure is still flawed.
ISSN:1815-7440