IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bjc/journl/v9y2022i2p59-66.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Times of COVID-19 Pandemic and its Impact: Rethinking the Public Sector Practices in Zimbabwe

Author

Listed:
  • Zvimekria Clive Mukushwa

    (Ph.D candidate in Local Governance Studies, Midlands State University, Gweru, Zimbabwe)

  • Enock Chikohora

    (Lecturer: Department of Peace, Leadership and Conflict Resolution, Zimbabwe Open University, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe)

Abstract

The public sector is widely recognised as one of the strategic providers of goods and services to ameliorate public welfare. Besides this, the public sector also formulates and implements macro-socio-economic policies to create a predictable, consistent and transparent investment climate. However, the advent of COVID-19 pandemic abruptly in late 2019 in China has undoubtedly reconfigured the traditional working landscape of the public sector internationally. Zimbabwe is no exception. One ponders how Zimbabwe weathered to this magnitude global catastrophe to be ahead of the curve and stay operational since its traditional practice were almost made redundant. There is still paucity of literature on COVID-19 pandemic and public sector governance. Hence, this paper assessed the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and government regulations to the public sector practices in Zimbabwe. It also evaluated the efficacy of COVID-19 preventative measures in suppressing the virus. This paper was largely qualitative study hinged on document analytic approach and snap survey. This paper argued that for public sector institutions to cope with the ‘new normal’, they should strategically rethink its philosophy of public sector practices. Analysis of recent literature that show that this global threat has unprecedentedly forced the government to trim its workforce to work physically and deferment of development projects as well as caused deaths of critical expertise and loss of revenue, among others. Debatably, the advent of COVID-19 pandemic is a wake-up call for Zimbabwe to learn some critical lessons and insights to capitalise on new opportunities presented to modernise its practice. Even though innovative digital strategies were adopted minimally, this paper further recommends that the public sector institutions should strengthen the espousal of contemporary digital systems sustainably to stay afloat in hard times of this crisis and post-COVID-19 bane.

Suggested Citation

  • Zvimekria Clive Mukushwa & Enock Chikohora, 2022. "Times of COVID-19 Pandemic and its Impact: Rethinking the Public Sector Practices in Zimbabwe," International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), vol. 9(2), pages 59-66, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:bjc:journl:v:9:y:2022:i:2:p:59-66
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rsisinternational.org/journals/ijrsi/digital-library/volume-9-issue-2/59-66.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.rsisinternational.org/virtual-library/papers/times-of-covid-19-pandemic-and-its-impact-rethinking-the-public-sector-practices-in-zimbabwe/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Teresa Curristine & Zsuzsanna Lonti & Isabelle Joumard, 2007. "Improving Public Sector Efficiency: Challenges and Opportunities," OECD Journal on Budgeting, OECD Publishing, vol. 7(1), pages 1-41.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Norman Gemmell & Patrick Nolan & Grant Scobie, 2017. "Public sector productivity: Quality adjusting sector-level data on New Zealand schools," Working Papers 2017/02, New Zealand Productivity Commission.
    2. Christodoulos K. Akrivos, 2019. "Managers’ Perception on Public Organizations’ Performance and New Public Management during Economic Crises," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(3), pages 57-69.
    3. Suhel & Abdul Bashir, 2018. "The role of tourism toward economic growth in the local economy," Economic Journal of Emerging Markets, Universitas Islam Indonesia, vol. 10(1), pages 32-39, April.
    4. Asatryan, Zareh & Heinemann, Friedrich & Pitlik, Hans, 2017. "Reforming the public administration: The role of crisis and the power of bureaucracy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 128-143.
    5. Hans Pitlik & Kristina Budimir & Norbert Gruber, 2010. "Optionen einer ausgabenseitigen Budgetkonsolidierung," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 83(3), pages 247-267, March.
    6. Weixiang Zhao & Yankun Xu, 2022. "Public Expenditure and Green Total Factor Productivity: Evidence from Chinese Prefecture-Level Cities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-27, May.
    7. Patrice Ollivaud, 2017. "Improving the allocation and efficiency of public spending in Indonesia," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1381, OECD Publishing.
    8. Ilir TOMORRI & Remzi KECO & Gentjan MEHMETI & Shpresim DOMI, 2020. "The Performance Assessment Of Public Sector In Albania," REVISTA ADMINISTRATIE SI MANAGEMENT PUBLIC, Faculty of Administration and Public Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 2020(34), pages 170-180, June.
    9. Panagiota Xanthopoulou & Vassilis Kefis, 2019. "Public Organisations and Public Management in Greece: The Implementation of Private Management Tools in the Public Sector," International Journal of Sciences, Office ijSciences, vol. 8(03), pages 45-54, March.
    10. Andrea Bonomi Savignon & Lorenzo Costumato & Benedetta Marchese, 2019. "Performance Budgeting in Context: An Analysis of Italian Central Administrations," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-15, October.
    11. Martins, José & Marques, Rui Cunha & Cruz, Carlos Oliveira, 2014. "Maximizing the value for money of PPP arrangements through flexibility: An application to airports," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 72-80.
    12. Jose M. Cordero & Cristina Polo & Nickolaos G. Tzeremes, 2020. "Evaluating the efficiency of municipalities in the presence of unobserved heterogeneity," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 377-390, June.
    13. Karin Fischer & Rauf Gönenç & Robert Price, 2011. "Austria: Public Sector Inefficiencies Have Become Less Affordable," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 897, OECD Publishing.
    14. Martina Halaskova & Renata Halaskova & Viktor Prokop, 2018. "Evaluation of Efficiency in Selected Areas of Public Services in European Union Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-17, December.
    15. Asatryan, Zareh & Heinemann, Friedrich & Yeter, Mustafa & Rubio, Eulalia & Rinaldi, David & Zuleeg, Fabian, 2016. "Public sector reform: How the EU budget is used to encourage it. Study," ZEW Expertises, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, number 147039.
    16. Liudmila Tkachenko, 2020. "Public Finance Management: Challenges and Opportunities," Athens Journal of Business & Economics, Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER), vol. 6(1), pages 73-98, January.
    17. Iwona Franczak, 2021. "Creative Accounting in Poland’s Sub-Sector of Local Governments," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 997-1017.
    18. Min-Hyuk Cho & Chan-Goo Yi, 2022. "Adaptive Social Innovation Derived from Digital Economy and Its Impact on Society and Policy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-20, March.
    19. Jackson, Emerson Abraham, 2020. "Importance of the Public Service in Achieving the UN SDGs," MPRA Paper 101806, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 02 Jun 2020.
    20. Mindaugas Laužikas & Mindaugas Laužikas & Aistė Miliūtė & Aistė Miliūtė, 2019. "Transformational Communication via Evolving Ethical and Moral Norms of Lithuanian Civil Service Organizations," Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues, VsI Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, vol. 6(4), pages 1750-1761, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bjc:journl:v:9:y:2022:i:2:p:59-66. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dr. Renu Malsaria (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijrsi/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.