This content requires Adobe Flash Player version
or later.
Either you do not have Adobe Flash Player installed,
or your version is too old,
or there is a problem with your Flash installation and we were unable to detect it.
increasing demands to find more cost-effective ways of serving the public, challenges all public sector employees to be entrepreneurial and innovative in delivering public services.
South Africa also needs an innovative public sector to sustain the transformation agenda and redress the past imbalances in terms of provision of public services and economic development. As indicated in this study this calls for models of service delivery to be emended and changed to deliver better services that meet the needs of citizens.
Various studies have identified five very important antecedents that stimulate a culture for corporate entrepreneurship activities (management support, autonomy/work discretion, reward/reinforcements, time availability and organisational boundaries).
The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which corporate entrepreneurship is promoted and encouraged within the public sector organisations in South Africa. As a starting point one department in the public sectors' National Head Office were targeted where a self-administered questionnaire was completed by 306 public managers. The Corporate Entrepreneurship Assessment Instrument (CEAI) which was developed by Kuratko, Montagno and Hornsby in 1990 was used to assess the extent to which corporate entrepreneurship is promoted and encouraged in the public sector.
In terms of the five antecedents of corporate entrepreneurship the study revealed that only work discretion is used to promote corporate entrepreneurship in the public sector. Management support, rewards/reinforcement, rewards/reinforcement and organisational boundaries are not appropriately used to promote corporate entrepreneurship in the public sector.
The assessment of corporate entrepreneurship in the public sector revealed that there is still a huge responsibility on the public sector to create a climate conducive for corporate entrepreneurship.
RECOMMENDATIONS The following recommendations can be made to public sector organisations in South Africa:
Ÿ The value and benefits of public sector entrepreneurship to be highlighted and marketed to employees and managers.
Ÿ Offer training programmes with regard to public sector corporate entrepreneurship.
Ÿ Top level executives are to take the lead in creating the environment conducive to public sector entrepreneurship in their organisation.
Ÿ Top level executives are to be involved and should offer support to employees who want to try something new.
Ÿ Management needs to come up with competitive incentives which will encourage and promote corporate entrepreneurship in their organisation.
Ÿ Employees to be allowed to conduct creative entrepreneurial experiments in a limited portion of their work time.
Ÿ Management needs to come up with flexible policies which will reduce bureaucracy and place less reliance on rules and procedures.
Ÿ Management needs to set aside budget for corporate entrepreneurial activities in their organisation.
CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR 114