To better understand these issues and identify ideas for reform, a joint research team composed of Civil Servants and academic research staff conducted interviews with over 2,762 senior-level officers in 45 Ministries, Departments, and Agencies in Ghana’s Civil Service. In 2018, the research team went back to the same MDAs and collaborated with new organizations and departments created since 2015, interviewing 3,003 officials in 58 ministries and departments.
In order to rigorously measure the quality of management practices, the Ghana Civil Servants Survey adapted the framework of the World Management Survey, an internationally recognized tool for benchmarking management quality, to measure management in the Civil Service. The survey asked questions on six topics of strategic importance to the civil service: the setting of targets, monitoring performance, the definition of roles, flexibility in implementation, the provision of incentives, and effective staffing practice.