The Relationship between Political Administrative Interface and Leadership Performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan ()
1. Introduction
Public service’s main mandate is to provide satisfactory public services to the citizens. Such service delivery can only be achieved through effective leadership operating in an efficient organizational structure. Structure permits leaders to manage in the manner that their management skills driven by efficient structures achieve organizational success [1] . The political-bureaucratic interface has been the subject of much academic interest and debate going back to Woodrow Wilson’s work on the characteristics of political and administrative spheres in 1887 [2] . This debate centres on the respective roles of politicians and administrators in the policy process and the nature of the relationship between them. It has significant practical implications for policymaking, and as such, continues to fuel academic interest (Demir &Nyhan [3] ; Georgiou [4] . Yet studies on the politics?bureaucracy relations have tended to focus exclusively on wealthy institutionalized democracies [5] .
Despite the importance of the politics?bureaucracy relations for improving leadership performance, there has been extraordinarily little attention accorded to the relationship between politicians and senior career chief executive officers (bureaucrats) in developing countries and more especially so in South Sudan Public Sector. How this kind of relations between the two players in government could shape the public service, especially in the Ministry of Petroleum in the Republic of South Sudan is not clear in the existing literature. The forgoing, therefore, presents the foundation of politicization vis-à-vis bureaucratization from the global perspective.
Organizational politics is a prevailing issue in today’s organizations; thus, a thorough investigation would help prevent its harmful results. Employee’s perception regarding organizational politics contributes to some adverse and negative outcomes, such as lesser commitment towards the organization, lowered performance of tasks, narrowed behavior of citizenship of the organization and satisfaction about their job [6] .
In terms of public leadership performance, many important studies have demonstrated that leadership can increase both individual and organizational performance in public sector, Bellé [7] ; Jacobsen & Andersen [8] ; Oberfield [9] . Ospina [10] and Van Wart [11] noted that the study of public sector leadership continues to have much to offer other sectors as public managers face some of society’s most pressing challenges and wicked problems defying easy answers. Public leadership appointments come along way with political loyalties. Political loyalty leadership emphasizes that employees should align their actions with political interests, even if it is costly for them.
The relationship between politicians and bureaucrats is a classical problem of governance and administration that remains one core of organizational structure and has remained a key question in political science and public administration with respect to their structural interaction, Rahman [12] ; Svara [13] . However, the public service sector of the Republic of South Sudan has been subject to enormous political and social influences, which inter alia include interference of politics, militarization of civil service, political patronage, corruption, nepotism and favouritism, low institutional capacity, and lack of professionalism [12] . The study, therefore, examined the relationship between political administrative interface and leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan.
1.1. Statement of the Problem
South Sudan is the world’s most oil-dependent country with more than 98 percent of the state budget being of oil revenue [14] . National organizations in South Sudan, including the Ministry of Petroleum, are meant to deliver high-quality programmes and activities targeted at public beneficiaries. Nevertheless, many of their given interventions, if any, have been characterized by low quality and poor performance [15] .
Organization structure therefore is a managerial task that deals with formalizing and managing complexity through the division of labor and reporting structures within the hierarchy. Institutional structures and inter-organizational relationships with their external environment are crucial to the performance of such organizations. Thus, the organizational structure may influence the style of leadership that leads to good or poor service delivery.
A long-standing organizational core and a central issue in political study and public administration, the interaction among bureaucrats and politicians is a basic issue of governance and administration in respect to their structural interaction (Rahman [12] ; Svara, [16] . However, the public service sector of the Republic of South Sudan has been subject to enormous political and social influences, which inter alia include interference of politics, militarization of civil service, political patronage, corruption, nepotism and favouritism, low institutional capacity, and lack of professionalism [12] . Inter-organization relations can contribute positively to improved leadership performance. In South Sudan, however, inter-organizational governance appears less effective. The forgoing mentioned challenges constitute a research gap that requires a scholarly investigation. To narrow the research gap, the research looked into how organizational structure affected leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan.
1.2. Objective of the Study
The objective of this study is to evaluate the relationship between political administrative interface and leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan.
1.3. Hypothesis
HO1: There is no significant relationship between political administrative interface and leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan.
2. Theory Informing the Study
2.1. Leader Member Exchange Theory
Wasike and Odhiambo [17] discuss the role of theories in guiding the thrust of academic studies. They emphasise the importance of theories in offering compelling and incisive causal explanations with calculated precision. They buttress their argument by quoting Smith [18] who asserts that theories play the role of predicting, prescribing and evaluating socio-political phenomena hence they cannot be ignored.
The study was based on Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory developed by Northouse [19] where he defines the leadership as a process which revolves around the interactions between leaders and their followers. Leader-Member Exchange theory brands the dyadic relationship between leaders and subordinates the pivotal point of the leadership process. Leader-Member Exchange Theory tasks the supposition that leaders treat followers in a joint way, as a group. Leaders treat subordinates in a unique way at varying degrees and levels contingent on whether the latter are part of the in-group or out-group [20] . The theory affirms that leaders do not interrelate with subordinates equally, Graen & Cashman [21] because supervisors have restricted time and resources.
Leader Member exchange theory proposes that employees in higher LMX relationships are privileged and have more ready access to resources than do subordinates in lower Leader member exchange relations (Gerstner & Day, [22] ; Graen& Liden [23] . It is possible that access to these resources allows subordinates in high-Leader Member exchange relationships to boost their performance beyond that of subordinates who lack access to the resources they need in order to learn and prosper. Häkkinen [24] asserts that the Leader Member Exchange theory can be constructed effectively through reciprocal trust toward trustworthiness and the roles between leaders and followers in an organisation.
Thus, Northouse validates LMX theory was used to corroborate the observation that people within organisations relate to each other and to the leader. In this study, LMX leadership style was used to assess the quality of relationship between politicians and senior career civil servants and how their politics-bureaucracy relation influences administrative (bureaucratic) leadership performance in public sector organisations. The study asked such questions: how is the quality of politician-civil servant exchange cultivated? How is trust built between bureaucrats and politicians in the executive branch of the government? How is respect and accountability maintained? Are there formal guidelines or rules governing the interactions between politicians and bureaucrats safeguarding the bureaucratic leadership performance from political leadership interference?
2.2. Empirical Review
Rouban [25] and Carino [26] opine that politicization of bureaucracy can lead to negative formation of government institutions. However, if done properly, politicization can play a pivotal role in fostering the democratization process with creation of effective public service control. It is worth noting that the concept of politicization of bureaucracy mostly targets and identifies the basis of interaction between the politicians and the bureaucrats. Since service delivery in South Sudan is still poor, it is not clear from literature whether politicization of the bureaucracy the cause of such poor service delivery which has implications on leadership performance in the country.
Jahan and Shahan [27] argue that political interactivity with bureaucracy can take two dimensions. The first political interactivity is participation in policy decisions and the second one is the partisan appointments in the bureaucracy. They advocate a well-recognized politics-administration dichotomy, also referred to as the founding theory of public administration. This model clearly differentiates between politics and administration. That is policy and decisions ought to be made by the elected leaders and bureaucrats implementing the policy decisions. According to them, politicization also occurs with civil servants gaining the responsibility to make and implement political decisions. Put another way, civil servants doing work of political nature over and above implementing legal or economic rules [25] . The question whether the civil servants in South Sudan being involved in the politics of the country and how such involvement affect leadership performance reflected by the nature of service delivery is also not clear the existing literature.
South Sudan has been struggling with the largest capacity gap in Africa. Every government agency suffers from the shortage of qualified staff, according to African Development Bank [28] . Key economic institutions are still in an early stage of developing capacity. Decades of warfare have left a heavily militarized political and bureaucratic culture in the civil administration. The political institutions are subordinate to the army SPLA, from which most of the ruling elite is drawn. The presidency is politically subordinate to top SPLM elites with less power and legitimacy. Consequently, government weaknesses include: technical input in decision-making and action has been neglected and that demotivates professional civil servants. Most SPLM leaders were rebel commanders who have become politicians and civil servants with limited skills in bureaucratic processes, with limited input in technical decisions and operations. The high sense of entitlement of the former rebel leaders prevents efforts to broaden the benefits of independence to other citizens and encourages high-level corruption.
Halligan [29] opines that the politicization of public services has been a relentless trend in public administration internationally. It can be attributed to the increasing demands on executive government, heightened partisanship and polarization, higher expectations about achieving official goals, and contextual factors that dilute the neutrality of the bureaucracy. It is also apparent that the spread of politicization has as has its breadth and depth (often extending down the bureaucracy and affecting a wide range of public servants). Within this broader trend, the timing and pace of politicization has varied widely among countries, some having long histories (several of the classic models of the “political civil servant”) and others being newcomers.
Mavanyisi [30] studied the nature of political control over the bureaucracy with reference to the Northern Province (1994-1998). Bureaucracies are controlled in various ways. Mechanisms aimed at ensuring public accountability towards ministers, national assemblies, the courts or ombudsmen may be instituted. The civil service may become politicised, so that it shares the ideological enthusiasm of the government of the day. Counter-bureaucracies may be formed to create an alternative advisory service and to strengthen the hand of elected politicians. Should the bureaucracy be subjected to political control? Among others, the study determined the nature of the bureaucracy, provided a picture of how bureaucracies function, and described the factors and institutions that influence the interaction between the political and the administrative systems in terms of political control. The extent to which bureaucracies function and the interaction between the political and the administrative systems in terms of political control in the Ministry of Petroleum in the Republic of South Sudan is the literature gap filled by the findings and discussions in the current study.
Meier [31] contends that contemporary public management is facing the twin challenges of failing political processes and the need to better represent the public, particularly minorities and disadvantaged segments of the population. Effective governance requires a political process that resolves conflict, creates goals for public programs, and provides those programs with the resources and autonomy needed to operate. The extent to which effective governance and a political process that resolves conflict, creates goals for public programs, and provides those programs with the resources and autonomy needed to operate is the literature gap that the current study filled by analysing to establish the influence of bureaucratic-political relations influencing leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan.
To summarize the empirical studies reviewed in this paper which examined the relationship between political administrative interface and leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. The anatomy of leadership performance is a function of the quality of leadership in place and this study hopes that, studying the scenario in South Sudan provided an amicable insight into the quality of actors making decisions on the type of administrative leadership in the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum of the Government of South Sudan. Advanced decentralization needs more than a policy, administrative structures, decision-making, reorganizing the functional planning procedures. The extent to which political administrative interface impacts on leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan has not been researched, which was the motivation of the study.
3. Conceptual Framework Model
Figure 1 is the conceptual model showing relationship between variables.
In this study, independent variable was political administrative interface with the following measurable indicators: political leadership accountability, democratic control, and political leadership transparency and performance appraisal laws. The dependent variable was leadership performance with two measure indicators: service delivery effectiveness and leadership succession effectiveness. Service delivery was measured using public service delivery effectiveness, policy execution effectiveness and decision-making effectiveness. Leadership succession effectiveness was measured using staff succession plan effectiveness and handover plans effectiveness. The researchers therefore hypothesized that effective implementation of the components of political administrative interface by the Ministry of Petroleum could led to effective leadership performance, in terms of effective service delivery and effective leadership succession plans.
4. Research Methodology
4.1. Research Design
The study adopted descriptive quantitative survey design which according to Mugenda and Mugenda [32] , a descriptive research design determines and reports the way things are. According to Saunders et al. [33] the descriptive study
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Figure 1. The relationship between political administrative interface and leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. Source: (Authors, 2022).
is concerned with finding out who, what, where, when, or how much. Therefore, the research design has the ability to produce information that was able to examine the relationship between political administrative interface and leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. Descriptive survey design was employed since it ensured the breadth of knowledge and precise descriptive analysis of the characteristics of the sample used to make population inferences [34] . The design is useful when a researcher needs to gather data on phenomena that cannot be directly observed. Its benefit is that it makes it possible to gather vast volumes of data from a large population in a highly efficient, simple and cost-effective manner, including using questionnaires.
The target population comprises of; the 54 Procurement Officers who are custodians of inventories on behalf of the corporations, 582 Senior Managers who are the consumers of inventory in their respective departments and 270 Inventory Officers in charge of inventory management. Specifically, the unit of analysis of the study was; the Procurement Officers Senior Managers who are the consumers of inventory in their respective departments and Inventory Officers in charge of inventory management. The Ministry of Petroleum in the Republic of South Sudan has a total of 1973 employees working in the seven directorates, namely: Administration and Finance; Exploration and Production (E&P); Petroleum Economics; Petroleum Infrastructure; Policy, Training and Research; Planning; and Health, Safety and Environment (HSE). The researcher, therefore, targets 1973 employees working in the commission, NilePet, and seven directorates of the Ministry of Petroleum. These comprises of 345 employees from Administration and Finance; 323 from Exploration and Production; 295 employees from Petroleum Economics; 180 employees from Petroleum Infrastructure; and 108 employees from Policy, Training and Research; 60 employees from Planning; 105 employees from Health, Safety and Environment; 427 employees from NilePet; 130 employees from National Oil and Gas Commission (Figure 2).
4.2. Sample and the Sampling Techniques
A sample size of about 10% to 30% is considered to be a reasonable representation of the intended population by Mugenda & Mugenda (2008). The researcher employed Yamane’s (1967) sampling technique to determine an appropriate sample size for the investigation, which included all personnel who was the target population of the study.
where n = Minimum Sample Size; N = population size: - e = precision set at 95% (5% = 0.05)
1973 (Study population) × 0.5 =
Employees
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Figure 2. Map of south Sudan. Source: https://www.un.org/geospatial/sites/www.un.org.geospatial/files/files/documents/2020/Apr/south_sudan_4450_r1.1_oct11_125.pdf
The researcher adopted Yamane [35] sampling formula to arrive at the sample size of 333 employees after rounding off 332.5748, out of the 1973-target population of the employees working for the government of South Sudan in the Ministry of Petroleum and its parastatals. The researcher then applied stratified sampling technique to proportionately select the working employees based on the strength of the numbers in each directorate or department in the Ministry of Petroleum. Subsequently, the researcher used simple random technique to distribute the questionnaires to each department (stratum) to ensure that every stratum is adequately represented to take off variation within in the population [36] .
The process of data collection included obtaining an introduction letter was sought from the Graduate School; Kisii University which enabled the researcher to seek a research permit for collecting data, from the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Republic of South Sudan. The researcher used Google Forms as a means of collecting data online and also conducted telephone interviews. The relationship between political administrative interface and leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan was tested with the Regression Model in Equation (1),
(1).
where;
Y = Ministry of Petroleum Leadership Performance; α = constant;
= parameter estimates; X1 = Political administrative interface; ε = the error of prediction.
5. Results
5.1. Results of Descriptive Statistics
Table 1 presents the findings of the political-administrative interface influencing leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. Concerning political leadership accountability, the results revealed that the majority of respondents 61% disagreed that political leadership accountability influences leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum. Concerning democratic decision making leadership results revealed that the majority of respondents 66% disagreed that leadership is dependent on democratic decision-making influencing leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum. On political leadership transparency majority of respondents, 69% disagreed that political leadership transparency influences leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum. Further findings on existing performance appraisal systems revealed that slightly more than half of the respondents disagreed that existing performance appraisal systems influence leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum. On merited political appointments, the results revealed that the majority of respondents 63% disagreed that merited political appointments influence leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum. Concerning open administrative policy, the findings revealed that slightly more than half of the respondents (52%) disagreed that open administrative policy influences leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum. On team-driven administrative policy, another slightly more than half of the respondents 52% disagreed that Team-driven administrative policy influences leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum. Further findings on effective communication established that also slightly more than half of the respondents 55% disagreed that effective communication influences leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum. On merit-based promotions, the findings revealed that the majority of respondents 62% disagreed that Merit-based promotions influence leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum. Concerning issues-based collective bargaining, slightly under half, 46% disagreed that issues-based collective bargaining influences leadership performance. Findings on effective training and development revealed that slightly over half of the respondents 51% disagreed that effective training and development influenced leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum. Last, concerning a favorable work environment, the majority of respondents 58% disagreed that a favorable work environment influences leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum.
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Table 1. Political administrative interface.
Source: Field data (2022).
The findings on organizational politics is supported by Kacmar, Andrews, Harris and Tepper [37] who observe that that perceived organizational politics is difficult to observe but can be manifested in various ways and actions including; emergence of anti-social behavior characterized by blaming, manipulating and attacking others, by-passing authority and superiors, withholding information, ingratiating and praising others, creating and maintaining favorable image through impression management, developing coalitions with powerful and influential persons, attaching to senior management right before promoting decisions and creating obligations. This implies that perceived organizational politics has the potential of obstructing justice in an organization and some members may be victims of political maneuvers by fellow colleagues in the same organization. The findings on democratic decision making is supported by Jahan and Shahan [27] who argue that political interactivity should be participatory in policy in order to enhance decisions a case which has lead to partisan appointments in the bureaucratic system. The Ministry has weak performance appraisal systems for leadership development evident by lack of merited political appointments. The findings on political appointment is supported by Hilena’s [38] who established that work on leadership challenges in implementing organizational change in Ethiopian Electric Power Utility indicates that the challenges leaders face in leading organizational performance results from poor working culture, fixed mindset, inadequacy of skilled workforce, the existence of unethical (corrupt) behavior, incompetency in decision making activities and resource constraint.
The triangulation of the findings on political administrative interface was achieved through qualitative results obtained from key informants. One key informant (MP001) was asked about whether all employees in the Ministry are given equal opportunity for career advancement and this was his verbatim response;
Training opportunity in the Ministry of Petroleum in Republic of South Sudan is skewed, based on nepotism and is haphazardly implemented. Those who are employed and are related to the management are the ones given opportunity for training opportunity outside the country. Some employees go as far as bribing the senior leaders for training opportunities who out of such immoral practices are taken for training in the major cities while us who are at the lower cadre and are not known are trained within the organization and are not compensated. Equally academic training in major colleges and universities are based on nepotism, bribery and other social favours.
Concerning misconduct, disciplinary issues in the Ministry, the other key informant (MP002) informed the researcher that the working policy on discipline is limited and needs improvement which corroborated the quantitative findings and this was her verbatim observation.
The work environment in the Ministry of Petroleum is harsh and inconsiderate. Discipline is for those who are not connected. For those who are connected, whether they come to work late or fail to come at all or are found with misconduct, they are untouchable and go Scotts Free whereas many employees have been terminated on very simple mistakes which could be solved amicably.
5.2. Relationship between Political Administrative Interface and Leadership Performance
This section presents the results of the relationship between political administrative interface and leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan (Table 2).
On Political Administrative Interfaces, out of the twelve (12) variable measures of organizational structures, eight (8) variable measures influenced leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. First, the study established a positive significant influence of political leadership accountability which was the measures of organizational structure on leadership performance (β = 0.100, p = 0.033 < 0.05). This significant positive influence made the researcher conclude that organizational structure influenced leadership performance at the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. Based on this finding, an increase of political leadership accountability by 1 unit will lead to an increase in leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan by 0.128 multiple units.
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Table 2. Influence of political administrative interfaces on leadership performance.
Second, the study established a positive significant influence of leadership dependent on democratic decision making which was the measures of organizational structure on leadership performance (β = 0.256, p = 0.000 < 0.05). This significant positive influence made the researcher to conclude that organizational structure influenced leadership performance at the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. Based on this finding, an increase in leadership dependent on democratic decision-making by 1 unit will lead to an increase in leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan by 0.256 multiple units.
Third, the study established a negative significant influence of existing performance appraisal systems which was the measures of organizational structure on leadership performance (β = −0.133, p = 0.001 < 0.05). This significant positive influence made the researcher conclude that organizational structure influenced leadership performance at the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. Based on this finding, an increase of existing performance appraisal systems by 1 unit will lead to a decrease in leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan by 0.133 multiple units.
Four, the study established a positive significant influence of Effective communication which was the measures of organizational structure on leadership performance (β = 0.297, p = 0.000 < 0.05). This significant positive influence made the researcher conclude that organizational structure influenced leadership performance at the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. Based on this finding, an increase in effective communication by 1 unit will lead to an increase in leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan by 0.297 multiple units.
Five, the study established a positive significant influence of merit-based promotions which was the measures of organizational structure on leadership performance (β = 0.144, p = 0.004 < 0.05). This significant positive influence made the researcher conclude that organizational structure influenced leadership performance at the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. Based on this finding, increase of merit-based promotions by 1 unit will lead to an increase in leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan by 0.144 multiple units.
Six, the study established a positive significant influence of issues-based collective bargaining which was the measures of organizational structure on leadership performance (β = 0.126, p = 0.003 < 0.05). This significant positive influence made the researcher conclude that organizational structure influenced leadership performance at the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. Based on this finding, an increase of Issues based collective bargaining by 1 unit will lead to an increase in leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan by 0.126 multiple units.
Seven, the study established a negative significant influence of effective training and development which was the measures of organizational structure on leadership performance (β = −0.158, p = 0.006 < 0.05). This significant positive influence made the researcher conclude that organizational structure influenced leadership performance at the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. Based on this finding, an increase in effective training and development by 1 unit will lead to a decrease in leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan by 0.126 multiple units.
Eight, the study established a positive significant influence of a favorable work environment which was the measures of organizational structure on leadership performance (β = 0.121, p = 0.014 < 0.05). This significant positive influence made the researcher conclude that organizational structure influenced leadership performance at the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. Based on this finding, an increase in a favorable work environment by 1 unit will lead to an increase in leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan by 0.121 multiple units.
The null hypothesis HO1 that there is no significant relationship between the political-administrative interface and leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan was rejected. This was based on the statistical test that established significant influence of Political leadership accountability, leadership dependent on democratic decision making, existing performance appraisal systems, effective communication, merit-based promotions, issues-based collective bargaining, effective training and development, and favorable work environment on leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan.
The inferential statistical test of the null hypothesis that HO1 that there is no significant relationship between political administrative interface and leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan which having been rejected, the researcher therefore deduced statistical evidence to conclude that the poor leadership performance in the Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan was due to ineffective political administrative interface which was one of the component of organizational structures affecting leadership performance.
6. Conclusions, Recommendations and Implications of the Findings
6.1. Conclusions
The main objective of the investigation was to evaluate the relationship between political administrative interface and leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. The researcher rejected null hypothesis that HO1, there is no significant relationship between political administrative interface and leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. Based on the inferential statistical test of the rejected null hypothesis HO1, the researcher therefore deduced statistical evidence to conclude that political administrative interface influenced leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan and that the poor leadership performance in the Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan was due to ineffective political administrative interface which was one of the element of organizational structures affecting leadership performance.
6.2. Recommendations
Based on the findings and the conclusions on the relationship between political administrative interface and leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan, the study came up with the following recommendations to improve leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan;
1) The study concluded that political administrative interface influenced leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. On leadership accountability, the researcher recommends the leaders at all levels should be accountable and transparent in their operatives to create trust among all the employees to achieve democratic decision-making among the leaders.
2) The Ministry should establish performance appraisal systems to increase productivity and service delivery and merited promotions and appointments. Further, the Ministry should be run on open administrative approach. This can be achieved through team-driven administrative policy for all-inclusive productivity. This will also encourage issues based on collective bargaining by employees. Lastly, the Ministry should provide favorable work environment and provide training for employees as a motivation and also for productivity.
6.3. Implications of the Findings
The study investigated political administrative interface and leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. The study bridged some of the conceptual, methodological and contextual gaps that had been identified in the literature review. The findings from this research present a number of issues that have implications for the theory used. In regard to Leader Member Exchange Theory, the study recognizes the importance of political administrative interface in the running of not only the Ministry of Petroleum in the Republic of South Sudan but also the entire public services in South Sudan. This will achieve effective administration that improves service delivery for the citizen of South Sudan. The significant influence of structure of governance and intervention strategies on leadership performance in public sector organizations in South Sudan expands the agency theory.
The study developed not only an empirical but also a structural model depicting the relationship among the study variables. The model presents a useful framework for political administrative interface and leadership performance. The study used a descriptive quantitative survey method to evaluate the influence of political administrative interface on leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic of South Sudan. This methodology therefore is expanded by the significant relationship between political administrative interface and leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic Of South Sudan established. Secondly, the study contributes to the use of both descriptive and regression statistical analysis of the analysis of political administrative interface and leadership performance in the Ministry of Petroleum of the Republic Of South Sudan.
At policy level, South Sudan’s Vision 2040 aspires to boost development by creating an enabling environment through economic, political and social pillar. In this regard, Vision 2040 aspires to build block in line with the government planning for its development agendas. A cardinal tenet of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and the vision of the New Sudan is democratic transformation of the country is the basis for success of such Ministries like the Ministry of Petroleum in the Republic of South Sudan. This will entail the mainstreaming of democratic practices and processes which enjoin the active participation of the citizens in determining their destiny. The vision identifies some of the hallmarks of democracy as decentralization of institutions; regular, free and fair multiparty elections; as well as widening of the democratic space in which all citizens can enjoy their civic rights. The vision is to nurture a Southern Sudan which will have developed morally, ethically upright and educated society matched by exceptional leadership that provides a role model for the younger generation. The Government of the Republic of South Sudan should therefore focus on coming up with various policies that would aid in the realization of Vision 2040 through organizational structures and effective leadership performance. These policies should be focused on strengthening political administrative interface in order to achieve effective leadership in public affairs.