Challenges faced by CEOs in executing turnaround strategies in state-owned enterprises in South Africa

South African Journal of Business Management

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Challenges faced by CEOs in executing turnaround strategies in state-owned enterprises in South Africa
 
Creator Mpete, Morongwa Maier, Christoph
 
Subject Business; Leadership; Management; Governance state-owned enterprise; CEO; turnaround; challenges; South Africa.
Description Purpose: Building on theories of the firm, this research examines the challenges faced by chief executive officers (CEOs) in executing a turnaround strategy in the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in South Africa.Design/methodology/approach: This is a qualitative study conducted within 10 of the 21 SOEs classified as Schedule 2 (major public institutions) in the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) that previously embarked on a turnaround. The study comprised 24 semi-structured interviews with CEOs, chief financial officers (CFOs), chief operating officers (COOs), boards, union representatives, regulators, and shareholders as the key players in a turnaround of a SOE. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data.Findings/results: This research suggests that political landscape and power struggles, inappropriate practices of board, politicians and shareholders, inefficient internal operations, leadership instability, legislation and corporate governance hinder the execution of turnaround strategies in the SOEs. This research is consistent with public choice, agency and resource dependence theories.Practical implications: State-owned enterprises need to be free from political interference to be able to turn around. Government, board, shareholders, communities, regulators, service providers and unions need to relook at how they portray the CEOs of SOEs, and rethink how they deal with them.Originality/value: This research contributes to policy, theory, practice, economy and society by expanding the theories of the firm, capturing real-life challenges the CEOs of SOEs face in executing a turnaround strategy and solutions to tackle the challenges. A roadmap to assist SOEs in executing a turnaround strategy successfully is recommended.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2024-03-29
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajbm.v55i1.4220
 
Source South African Journal of Business Management; Vol 55, No 1 (2024); 14 pages 2078-5976 2078-5585
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/4220/2789 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/4220/2790 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/4220/2791 https://sajbm.org/index.php/sajbm/article/view/4220/2792
 
Coverage Africa; South Africa 1994-2023 Shareholders; Boards; Regulators; CEOs; CFOs; COOs; Union representative
Rights Copyright (c) 2024 Morongwa Mpete, Christoph Maier https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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