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Measuring excellent performance in Zambian public organisations – Online DBA defense

04-11-2020

On 3 November 2020, Mr. Tobias Mulimbika successfully defended his DBA thesis in an online session. The thesis is titled ‘Measuring excellent performance in Zambian public organisations’.

“Though challenging, the DBA program with MSM has changed my life forever. I would recommend it to all those looking for a professional qualification that changes your life for the better.” Dr. Mulimbika states after defending his thesis. “I wish to profoundly express my gratitude to all MSM Research Department staff members for their all-embracing systematic academic support and guidance. I am proud to be a product of MSM and trust that the results of my research will support policymakers and bridge the gap between applied research and decision making,” he continues.

About Dr. Mulimbika’s research
Due to globalization, the business environment has become more complex and competitive for everyone. Citizens have become more aware of what they expect from their governments. Governmental organizations can no longer continue with their underperformance. Public Managers must develop skills to focus on what matters to improve the performance of their organizations.

With a desire to satisfy his passion for improving the performance of public organizations, Dr. Mulimbika looked at various studies on characteristics of organizational performance to help managers in public organizations focus on what matters most for the last three decades. Most of the studies on this subject are skewed towards the private sector and mostly done in western countries.

Driven by this research gap, in a longitudinal set-up over four years, Dr. Mulimbika surveyed three Zambian governmental organizations and worked closely with the managers to implement a performance improvement program.

The results indicate that the characteristics of excellent performance were contextual. However, public managers can use these characteristics as a guide, if implemented in a disciplined way, to achieve exceptional financial and non-financial results.

The research provides a practical guide for public managers to improve the performance of governmental organizations.

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