Executive Support and Performance of Selected Local Governments in Eastern Uganda

Abstract

Change management practices such as executive support, effective communication and employee involvement have been successfully used by private sector entities in order to improve organisational performance. The purpose of this study objective was to establish the relationship between executive support and performance of selected Local Governments in Eastern Uganda. The constructs of executive support variable used in this study include; leadership, coaching and strategic planning. The study was guided by the hypothesis that; “there is no relationship between executive support and performance of selected Local Governments in Eastern Uganda”. Three local governments included in the study were; Jinja, Tororo and Soroti. Using a cross-sectional design, a quantitative sample of 313 respondents comprising of both political and technical personnel were selected from sub-county and district levels. Quantitative data was collected using self administered questionnaire which yielded to a response rate of 85.6%. Similarly, a qualitative sample of 8 key informants was selected to collected qualitative data using key informant interview. Data analysis for quantitative data involved the use of descriptive statistics, correlation, regression and content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data. The findings indicated a statistically significant positive relationship between executive support and the performance of local governments (r = 0.380, p < 0.01), which led to the rejection of the null hypothesis. The paper concludes that executive support as a change management practice plays a pivotal role in improving the performance of the local governments in Eastern Uganda, and executives in the public sector need to spearhead strategic planning, improve their leadership styles and be in a position to coach their subordinates to improve performance.