PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Vol. 6,211-221 1986

Life at the apex: the functions of permanent secretaries in nine Southern African countries

JOHN D. MONTGOMERY Harvard University

SUMMARY The political role of senior civil servants in Africa cannot be differentiated from their administrative roles. An analysis of specially commissioned ‘diaries’ kept by 40 permanent secretaries or their deputies reveals that their roles include all the organizational functions described by Mintzberg. Their functions in order of priority as measured by time spent are ‘resource handling’, liaison, analysis/planning, monitoring, acting as spokesmen, entrepreneurship and dissemination. The political neutrality of permanent secretaries appears to survive in the sense of escaping party discipline. However, politicians and bureaucrats in the countries surveyed both act as conservators and innovators. Environmental circumstances other than politics have the greatest influences on the activities of top civil servants. The similarities in functions performed are striking, given the different ideologies, colonial heritages and traditions of the countries studied.

African civil servants working in the British tradition still pursue many of their functions as if there had been no changes since the Whitehall tradition was introduced in the nineteenth century.’ Political neutrality, for example, has remained an official virtue in spite of the politicization of the functions of government; the civil servant’s role may have changed in the mother country more than in the former colonies: even their celebrated political neutrality was challenged by Prime Minister Thatcher as she drew the British cabinet into the closed-wagon position to protect her government against potential attackers; while overseas it became an issue only in a few Commonwealth countries that were embarking upon a one-party system that seemed t o require new forms of political loyalty. Close examination of the day-to-day activities of permanent secretaries in Southern Africa shows, however, that although political loyalty may be more important than political neutrality so far as politicians are concerned, political partisanship does not rank very high among the functions of permanent secretaries in that part of the world. The political role of the higher civil service in Africa is subtler, that is, less differentiated from their work as administrators, than that of their European counterparts.

The activities of permanent secretaries in nine states of Southern Africa are now well documented, thanks to a study commissioned by the Southern Africa

Professor Montgomery is in the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02138, USA. ’ For a discussion of the changing Whitehall model see Aberbach et a/. (1981); Hall (1983); Norton (1982); Sisson (1952); Summerton, (1980); Ridley (1983); Crossman (1975-77; 1972).

027 1 -2075/86/0302 1 1 - 1 1$05 S O 0 1986 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

212 J . D. Montgomery

Development Coordination Conference (SADCC) in the summer of 1984.‘ During the course of that study, 40 permanent secretaries or their deputies or equivalents3 completed diaries describing their activities over a periodof 7-10 days, producing a total of 1187 entries, each of which describes a function that required an hour or more of their time, or that ‘seemed important’ to them for other reasons. We now know enough about what they ‘do’ during working hours to permit us to appraise their managerial function in some detail.

What these officials do is important quite apart from their politics: they occupy what is sometimes called the strategic apex of the managerial system of their countries. Their roles include all of the functions described by Mintzberg (1979) in his analysis of what top managers should do in any large organization. They head the operating core of the organization (as distinguished from its ‘technostructure’ and ‘support staff‘); it is they who, under Mintzberg’s theory, would be the ones to supervise the work of the organization, handle its relationships with the environment, and develop its strategy for change in response to external forces. Like all top managers with ‘supervisory’ responsibilities, therefore, they would be expected to (1) allocate resources, (2) handle disturbances, (3) monitor performance, (4) disseminate information, and (5) provide leadership in staffing and motivating employees. In ‘managing the environment’, they would (6) serve as spokesmen about the organization’s activities, (7) provide liaison with other organizations, (8) negotiate with them, and (9) act as figureheads in carrying out ceremonial or representational duties on behalf of the organization. Finally, in developing the organization’s strategy for responding to that environment, they would (10) act as entrepreneurs in adapting its mission and devising means of achieving its major goals. Since they are acting as top managers in public or parastatal organizations, they are expected to perform these functions while paying close attention to the political setting that constitutes their proximate environment.

A frequency count and description of the functions these permanent secretaries actually perform will test whether this theory adequately describes the work of strategic managers of the public sector in developing countries. The ‘management events diaries’ collected during the study also provide a preliminary guide to life at the apex of the public service4 in these nine newly independent countries, and this will help distinguish their political from their administrative roles.

According to these diaries, permanent secretaries spent more time as ‘resource handlers’ than on any other function (306 entries), with the ‘liaison’ function coming in as a distant second (221 entries). But they also served at least partially as their own technostructure: the third most frequently encountered function was that

The member countries are Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, all of which cooperated most helpfully in the study. ’ As Table 1 shows, only about a third of the diary entries were supplied by individuals bearing the title ‘permanent secretary’. The rest came from their deputies or their equivalents in parastatal corporations or public enterprises. For brevity’s sake they are all referred to as ‘permanent secretaries’, a simplification that appears justified in view of the fact that there is so little difference between the two sets of entries.

The diarists included permanent secretaries or their deputies and equivalents from ministries of Health, Personnel, Economic Affairs, Finance, Education, Minerals and Water Affairs, Local Government and Lands, Agriculture, Labour and Public Service, Communication and Works, and Trade and Industry. These agencies were selected by our hosts, as representing large organizations with training responsibilities that might benefit from the study. Thus small secretariats and staff offices did not participate. Several directors of departments and managing directors of parastatal enterprises and private corporations were included in the sample.

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of analysts/planners (199). Next in frequency came their role as monitors (153), spokesmen (141), entrepreneurs (134), and disseminators (120). Routine office chores (not included in the Mintzberg canon) came next (1 lo), in terms of the time they consumed, but there were still a few hours left for them to serve as negotiators (79), leaders (73), disturbance handlers (36), and, in last place, figureheads (26). The frequency with which apex managers performed those roles is not necessarily an indication of their importance, of course; only a detailed examination of the experiences themselves provides guidance on that issue.

It should not be surprising in a continent that is the site of some of the poorest countries in the world, to find that the primary task of the top government officials is the management and allocation of resources. The diary entries recount with earnest repetitiveness the many efforts at economizing in the use of financial and personnel resources, and the great concern at top levels over the maintenance and other custodial functions, that collectively make up the largest element in most organizations’ budget. The record shows a high degree of personal involvement in even trivial details of resource management . 5 Entries ranged from items concerning design of organizational structure and details of assignment of personnel and resources, to daily decisions allocating resources in accordance with the perceived mission of the organization:

I met with other permanent secretaries to figure out how to re-employ ‘young’ pensioners while training their replacements. (1)

I chaired a meeting of a Standing Interministerial Committee to consider applications from private investors in the hope of promoting productive employment. (1 1)

I chaired a meeting to consider ways the government could help the cooperative movement out of its present financial difficulties. (26)

I initiated a cabinet memorandum on the further reorganization of the National Agriculture Marketing Board. (395)

Some rather urgent details occupied time during those busy days:

Discussed with my deputy the issue of solving the problem of a blood transfusion team marooned in a mountain district hospital because of bad weather. (561)

Telephoned the superintendent of the National Referral Hospital on sending medical help to a village hit by a tornado. (562)

On a still more humble level:

Dealt with the case of a subordinate who absented himself from work for the whole month and appeared on payday to collect his salary. (581)

These concerns are usually thought of as a normal function of top management; the only surprise presented in these diaries may be the extent to which they dominate the agenda of action.

Numbers in parentheses refer to the serial file of all diary entries.

214 J. D. Montgomery

The liaison role, next in frequency of appearance in the diaries, is usually associated with some other function (liaison for what?), but can nevertheless be counted separately because of its importance to an organization’s mission (few organizations, especially in the African context where redundancy occurs only by accident, can operate independently of the activities of other organizations). Information and influence are important resources usually deployed at the apex of an organization. They are what liaison is all about.

Met with a representative of a donor agency to explain the government’s position regarding competing demands on the use of an office building it had funded. The new demands were in conflict with the use originally agreed between the donor and the government. (18)

Met a representative of a donor agency to discuss funding alternatives following reductions of the overall aid originally envisaged for my country. (18)

Received a delegation from the Post and Telecommunications Department to discuss the personal salaries of the former East African Community Staff. (250)

Attended the meeting of the Standing Committee of PSs to deal with the expulsion of illegal aliens from the country. (370)

Held discussions with a visiting USAID team on the usefulness of some aid programmes. (508)

Persuaded the local university to conduct a training programme as scheduled, even though the Finance Ministry had not released the necessary funds. (386)

Met with a delegation from another ministry on a subject my office is responsible for. (514)

Contacted the Department of Information and Propaganda of the Party and asked to have TV coverage of the opening ceremony of the Seminar on Curriculum for Training Nurses. (714)

Analysis and planning were not listed in Mintzberg’s table of strategic functions; they are more likely to be associated with the work of the technostructure or support staff. But since they are so often included in training curricula of contemporary management education (being so well adapted to the preferences and expertise of faculties of economics and administration), they were coded along with the other categories. By a generous interpretation, these functions were mentioned about two- thirds as often as those of resource allocation, but they bore only a remote connection with strategic decisions:

Analysed the existing arrangements of managerial posts to strengthen

Chaired a meeting of Chief Education Officers to discuss ways of

Arranged some data in a systematic format. (781) Analysed data gathered during a time-and-motion study. (808) Prepared statistics on branch capabilities. (1009) Analysed the

the organization. (190)

ensuring that all eligible children are actually in school. (380)

Integrated Development Project of a district. (1086)

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Carried out a feasibility analysis for implementing a computer system in the ministry. (1095)

Permanent secretaries do littie strategic analysis in the sophisticated sense in which it is taught in most graduate programmes in management. But they do have to engage in various improvisatory forms of administrative analysis.

Monitoring the performance of those who act on behalf of the organization is an important function of its leaders, and 13 per cent of the permanent secretaries’ activities were of that order:

Held telephone consultations with two heads of departments over an apparent fraud through misuse of purchase orders. (101)

Checked on progress of a circular left for typing and reproduction inviting nominations to the Humphrey Fellowships.

Inspected office buildings to ensure that they are maintained by the office cleaners. (124)

Visited a private textile factory to assess the new capacity in textile and garment production to see whether it should be visited by the President. (409)

Discussed arrangements for a new registry for the ‘flying doctor service’ which is responsible for administration of rural clinics reached by air. (576)

Gave a stern warning to an employee who was believed to be misusing government stationery for private purposes. (579)

Following requirements by a major government committee that certain information be submitted to it in a given format, issued written instructions to the head of the sector concerned to comply with the requirements strictly. (599)

Examined a report from the Senior Security Officer about the progress of investigations into cases of fraud in a province. (617)

Began a study of human services management in the various services. ( 1008)

Monitoring is a function that ranges from supervision of immediate subordinates to analysis of a system of management information-gathering that is intended to improve performance. The balance between personal supervision and systems monitoring appears in the African case to tilt toward direct action. African administration is more a matter of personal relations than of systems (Hyden, 1983).

Acting as spokesman on behalf of the organization in order to make its positions formally known, calls more for writing than speaking skills, and made another frequent appearance on the agenda. Only occasionally did the spokesman do more than speak: more aggressive forms of leadership were rarely displayed. Perhaps the heavy in-fighting took place elsewhere:

Participated in a meeting to decide a project package for World Bank funding. Influenced the meeting to agree to certain modifications to the original package. (16)

Attended a board meeting of a parastatal organization and collectively resolved a number of policy and administrative issues. (12)

216 J . D. Montgomery

Most of the morning was occupied with interviews with members of the public. (262)

Met a representative of a donor agency to clarify our position regarding a proposed investment by a private firm from the donor country. (14)

Participated in a meeting to consider the merging of the State Agricultural College with the National University. The meeting accepted my suggestion for a transitional period of association. (24)

Briefed the Minister about the progress of plans for district hospitals and the National Referral Hospital. (534)

Handled a complaint by a landlord whose arrears in rentals of vacated quarters had not been paid. (550)

Gave a short talk to a visiting foreign delegation on how we run our ministry. (61 1)

Worked on a speech I am to deliver next week. (969)

A spokesman is often a disseminator of information within the organization, and the permanent secretaries performed that function almost as frequently. Most of the entries involved drafting or approving official statements, though there were exceptional cases in which the dissemination function was discharged through political authorities:

Collated and authenticated departmental written submissions for inclusion in the President’s speech to be delivered at the opening of the National Assembly. (55)

Drafted the Customs Union Report for the year. (237)

The entrepreneurial role was described in 134 diary entries. Permanent secretaries tried to find additional resources for one-industry towns, to develop new programmes of public information, and even to explore means of reducing risks borne by private investors:

Chaired a meeting to formulate a strategy for sustained economic viability of a town that is wholly dependent on a mine for its economy. (15)

Met the Director of Information and Broadcasting to consider the possibility of introducing a regular radio programme to educate the public on economic issues. (19)

Participated in a meeting to consider what guarantees should be given to a potential investor in a hotel development project. (22)

Chaired a meeting to consider ways of improving the housing situation in the country. (64)

Met with Central Transport Office to promote transport for the coming census. (235)

There was relatively little time devoted to negotiations other than those involved in the liaison, spokesman, or entrepreneur functions already discussed; and they were usually related to routine matters of personnel and shared resources. The function of handling disturbances was likewise limited, both in frequency and importance. Most of the 36 entries so coded had to do with jurisdictional disputes or with personal quarrels (usually by way of an appeals process).

Life at the Apex 2 17

The role of leader, in the sense of adapting an organization’s mission to accommodate changes in its immediate environment, was also significantly less prominent than would have been predicted under theories about life at the apex of public institutions. Moreover, the issues under discussion usually involved the formulation of routines, such as assigning new tasks to the organiation’s staff or changing personnel arrangements to accomplish an immediate purpose, rather than fundamental revisions in the organization’s mission.

Processed request to Public Service Commission for recruitment of

Planned and assigned new tasks to be undertaken during the coming

Discussed foreign exchange release for importing motorcycles for use by

Discussed use of a simulator to reduce training costs, and asked for

Considered an important request from an organized group outside the

Met with a managing director of a corporation to agree on several

Discussed possibility of establishing government control over fees

Discussed possibility of changing terms of contracts for vehicle assembly

Circulated minute to heads of sections calling for views on

Two-hour meeting with the Minister to discuss management problems

Met with other directors to discuss project to change procedures for

someone to fill a senior post. (1 07)

week. (693)

extension officers. (417)

preparation of cost/benefit study of the idea. (419)

public service for government intervention in their area of interest. (513)

policies undergoing review. (525)

charged by doctors’ service at district hospitals. (554)

operations. (632)

improvements in department’s operations. (633)

and inadequacies. (652)

registration. (723)

At the apex of management in these nine countries, then, the dominant concern is over resources, not strategies. Resource constraints not only dominate the allocation function, but also constitute the principal concern of the monitoring function, of liaison with different organizations, and of the negotiations and entrepreneurial activities of permanent secretaries.6 It is possible that this concern is characteristic of all public sector management at the apex, as contrasted with its counterparts in private enterprise, but that is a distinction that has yet to be demonstrated.

CONCLUSIONS

The political neutrality of the permanent secretaries appears to have survived in its original sense, of escaping subjection to party discipline. That is the first, and perhaps most important, finding suggested by the diary entries.

~~

The diaries that were completed by managers below the rank of permanent secretary also represented managers who occupied the ‘apex’ positions. A careful review of the functions related to these two groups of officials showed an almost uncanny constancy. Among the 482 entries that could definitely be confirmed as written by the permanent secretaries or their equivalents, there was no single function that deviated from the proportion in the database as a whole by more than two or three percentage points.

218 J. D. Montgomery

Permanent secretaries are not, of course, political eunuchs. But their political behaviour does not violate traditional norms, under which an objectionable role might be defined as either excessive activism (going over the head of a cabinet minister to seek support of a position from the partyor a legislative or public action group, for example) or excessive inertia (vetoing a disfavoured policy by simply not implementing it). Neither the diaries nor the other data gathered in the study gave any indication of significant political activities of either type. Moreover, the traditional distinction between top bureaucrats as guardians of tradition, in contrast to the politicians’ role as innovators, has little meaning in the African context. Perhaps the fact that change is high on the agenda of all governments in the developing world helps reduce the desirability to having either group play the exclusive part of conservator. Both politicians and top civil servants are drawn from a relatively small elite corps in most of those countries; both are in a sense conservators, and both innovators: a precise role differentiation between them on that score might be mutually inconvenient. But their sharing of those concerns does not weaken the functional distinction between politics and administration in the African setting.

A parallel study conducted as part of the SADCC research on management training needs gathered ‘management events’ from all ranks of the public, private, and parastatal services. A modest number of incidents described political interference in personnel matters, misuse of public resources by politicians, and attempts by ministers to substitute their judgement in technical matters for those of the career administrators. Obviously some such events occurred as part of the context of some events described in the diaries. They constituted, however, a kind of background to (and possibly restraint on) administrative action, rather than an invitation or directive to the permanent secretaries to become involved in politics and to further the aims of a political party.’

Politics was rarely mentioned during the study, in spite of the ferment in which these countries are compelled to govern themselves. There was, in fact, only one case in which a permanent secretary attended a political rally,another in which he had to leave his office to hear an important government figure speak, and one or two that might have had minor political overtones in connection with a provincial visit (a dedication ceremony, a meeting with local officials). A political party was mentioned only once in the diaries, election proceedings once, and public speeches (apart from technical explanations to subordinate units of a client-public) not at all. There was a briefing or two of television or press representatives, apparently merely to explain official policy.

One would not expect these diaries to record any activities that might be interpreted as politically disloyal, to be sure, in spite of the promise of anonymity that accompanied this study. Political issues must certainly have been discussed freely during the frequent informal social interactions that take place between ministers and their top administrators. The fact that such discussions were not

’ The Aberbach ef al. distinction between politician and bureaucrat finds the former playing predominantly the role of advocate, ombudsman, partisan, and facilitator, while the bureaucrat excels as technician and broker. Their roles were seen in this Europe-based analysis as approximately equal in considering their capabilities as legalist, trustee, and policy-maker (p. 89). These role distinctions would be very hazardous to draw on the basis of the limited data available under the SADCC study, unfortunately.

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mentioned very often in these records of events that occurred during working hours suggests that the higher civil service is more concerned with politics and policies as individuals than as officials.

It may be surprising to most readers to learn that policy issues filled only a minor part of the agenda of the top management. One permanent secretary

Met with a member of the Party from the Economic area to analyse the proposal for an organization chart for the National Department of Human Resources with a view to reorganizing it. (669)

But that activity appears more one of liaison than a political or policy concern. Similarly, the permanent secretary who

Briefed the Minister on the current policy of the ministry on sex education as he was to address a voluntary church organization on the subject (381)

was apparently explaining an established policy that did not appear to be under challenge. In this instance he was not even setting the minister’s agenda, since the briefing was obviously in response to a routine request. The only entry in which the flow of influence was reversed coincided with the traditional definition of the higher civil servants’ role:

Met with comrade Vice-Minister of Agriculture to get guidelines for the solution of several problems. (672)

Other features of life at the apex help explain the relative calm surrounding the politics/administration nexus. The events show that other environmental circumstances were more important influences on their activities. Many events-an even larger number than those coded under the function of resource handling- reflected shortages of personnel, equipment, and financing. There were essentially no references to ‘pressure-group’ activities of the sort that claim so much of the time of top career officials in the industrial countries. Negotiations and compromises, along with most of the resource-extracting activities, were almost entirely internal to the public service, with little occasion for dealings with the private sector or with external public organizations. Even the function of handling disturbances and arbitrating between conflicting positions usually involved matters of personnel, discipline, and individual compensation claims. The permanent secretaries and their colleagues were more ‘managers’ than they were ‘civil servants’ in the Heclo (1984) definition of those roles.

Finally, these diary entries offer a clue as to the question of the permanent secretary’s uniqueness in the higher civil service. Among the SADCC countries are several (notably Angola and Mozambique) that did not emerge out of the British colonial tradition, and several (Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland) that had received it second-hand via the Republic of South Africa. And their ideological preferences range from the socialism of Tanzania to the traditionalism of Swaziland and from a waning enterprise system in Zimbabwe to the tentative capitalistic adventures of Botswana. Yet, with few exceptions, their permanent secretaries

220 J . D. Montgomery

Table 1. Functions of permanent secretaries in nine African countries ~~ ~

Role Total 070 Top level 070 Ang. Bot. Les. Moz. Swa. Tan. Zam. Zim.

Resource allocator 26 Disturbance handler 3 Monitor 13 Disseminator 10 Leader 6 Spokesman 12 Liaison 19 Negotiator 7 Figurehead 2 Entrepreneur 11 Analyst/planner 17 Other and routines 9 Total number 1171

27 28 29 23 25 25 11 42 26 4 0 3 3 3 2 3 2 6

11 23 3 12 14 7 7 3 24 13 7 5 9 7 14 10 14 19 7 2 6 1 3 4 2 8 2 1 1

13 2 33 11 6 5 34 16 10 13 21 26 13 25 3 24 14 10 9 4 26 3 1 15 12 6 10 3 2 1 0 1 3 1 7 3

14 7 46 15 3 24 13 14 10 18 16 50 12 11 10 31 33 5 4 4 9 8 1 1 3 2 8 2 7

482 56 76 105 447 59 101 128 199

Note: The first column includes all diary entries. Top level refers to permanent secretaries identified as such. Country totals include both categories.

performed the same functions with about the same frequency (see Table 1). The similarities are striking, given the differences in their own traditions and their colonial heritages. They are enough either to confirm the view that all organizations look alike from the top down, or, perhaps, that when economic constraints are severe enough, they produce a common response to the needs of austerity, displacing concerns over the niceties of strategic planning and social policy. It is also possible that the Mintzberg categories used in classifying these activities may be too general to permit their use as a means of distinguishing among the functions of managers at different levels.

Yet the differences are interesting, too. In Tanzania’s reduced circumstances the permanent secretaries spend less time allocating and administering resources and more on policy analysis, by wide margins, than the average. Mozambique gives its permanent secretaries less opportunity for entrepreneurial functions than the average, and Swaziland more. Leadership functions, especially in the redefining of organizational roles, offer more-than-average challenge in Lesotho and Zimbabwe, and less in Angola and Zambia.

The permanent secretaries play a largely predictable, almost interchangeable, role in these nine countries. But that role is far from identical with that of their counterparts in Europe. The immediate economic environment keeps their noses closer to the administrative grindstone than in the more prosperous countries, and leaves politics to the politicians. One result is that Whitehall is alive and well in Southern Africa.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The data were gathered by an international team of which I served as project director, consisting of Dr Esau M. Chiviya, Zimbabwe Institute of Public Administration and Management; Prof. Robet E. Klitgaard, Harvard University;

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Mr Modiri J . Mbaakanyi, Executive Director, Botswana Employers Federation; Prof. A. Gaylord Ohern, University of Pittsburgh; Prof. Louis A. Picard, University of Nebraska; Prof. Rukudzo Murapa, University of Zimbabwe; Mr Bhekie A. Dlamini, Institute of Development Management, Swaziland; Dr Rogerio F. S. Pinto, Organization of American States; and Mr M. J. Ziyane, Swaziland Institute of Management and Public Administration. This team was working on behalf of the Southern African Development Coordination Conference under a contract between the US Agency for International Development and the National Association of Schools of Public Administration and Affairs. Prof. Wendell Schaeffer was the coordinator of the project for NASPAA, and Mrs Jeanne North for AID; both of them made substantial contributions to both the management and substance of the project. The following students at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government performed the coding of the diary entries: Lewis Brandt, John Druke, Bonnie Friedman-Partie, Laura Ibarra, and Roop Jyoti. They worked under the supervision of Mr V. V. Rama Subba Rao, my research assistant at the Kennedy School. I am grateful, too, to Prof. Murapa for commenting on an early draft of this article.

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