Theses (PhD)

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    Leadership effectiveness of the executive directors of local government authorities in Tanzania
    (Groningen University, 2023) Igulu, George Romanus
    In the Tanzanian administrative system, the local government authorities (LGAs) are seen as an important layer of government that is responsible for the provision of social services such as education and health services. In the LGA the executive director is the highest civil servant who is seen as an important figure. This dissertation answers the question ‘what managerial roles and leadership behaviour the executive directors display in LGAs and to what extent and in what ways such roles and leadership behaviour explain the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of the LGAs?’ The study concludes that the administrative behaviour of the executive directors is primarily bureaucratic in applying general instructions from the central government with little room for manoeuvring. The main activity is informational, meaning that the director provides instructions to the subordinates and provides reports to the central government. The dominant leadership behavior is transactional and Ubuntu, meaning that the societal position of the director is very important. The study suggests enhancing the role of the LGA council to improve the role of the executive director. This dissertation is part of the project Capacity Building for the enhancement of Decentralisation by Devolution in Local Government Authorities in Tanzania: a collaboration between Mzumbe University (Tanzania), the University of Groningen and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Netherlands) and funded by NUFFIC.
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    Empowerment and Effectiveness of School Committees in Tanzania
    (University of Bergen, 2010) Masue, Orest Sebastian
    Empowerment of local communities and establishment of appropriate local level institutional frameworks have recently become important tenets for education management in the developing countries. Tanzania is also sailing on the same boat with other countries in that endeavour, where educational decision making powers have been conferred to the local levels. As of now, school committees have been empowered to take over the oversight and development roles in their respective schools. The study has been an attempt to assess the effectiveness of the primary school committees in Tanzania; focussing on two LGAs namely, the Morogoro Municipal Council (MMC) and Mvomero District Council (MVDC).Two primary schools (one from each LGA) were studied in detail to ascertain any significant differences between the urban and rural school committees with regard to capabilities and effectiveness in role accomplishment. The study approach was mainly qualitative, using in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, observation and documentary analysis. The study involved 32 purposefully selected informants, comprising of Education Officers from the two LGAs, Village and „Mtaa‟ Executive Officers, Head teachers, School Committee members, parents and pupils. Generally, it was found that majority (78%) of the two school committees members were primary school leavers or below, a phenomenon attributed to lack of interest of „the educated‟ to become members of school committees. While there was trivial difference between the rural and urban school in terms of committee members‟ understanding of their responsibilities, the committee members from the two committees were adequately informed about their roles. In addition, there was high consistency between the level of education and role accomplishment capabilities. That is, members with fairly high educational qualifications indicated that they were competent enough to accomplish their roles; while those who had low educational qualifications declared that they were not competent enough to accomplish most of the skill-demanding roles like planning and budgeting. Inadequacy of financial resources was pervasive in either case, constraining successful implementation of school development plans. On these grounds, therefore, my conclusion is that not outstanding but impressive achievements have so far been accrued regarding the empowerment and effectiveness of the school committees. However, attainment of the real school committee empowerment and effectiveness calls for enduring and comprehensive capacity building efforts by multiple agents (the Government, NGOs, CSOs, Media, CBOs etc.) to develop knowledge, skills and financial resource bases at the local levels; and also create awareness to the people on the importance of their participation in educational decision making processes.