Effect of employee participation on performance in the county government of Kakamega, Kenya

Abstract

The promulgation of the Constitution Kenya, 2010 ushered in 47 devolved county governments. These county governments are new centres of power whose main mandate is delivery of better services to the citizenry who had long been suffering from marginalization and discrimination by the central government. County governments have not prioritized employee performance to meet the increasing expectations of the public. Furthermore, there have been numerous reports across the country of discontented employees, numerous strikes, and poor performance cases among the public service. In view of the foregoing, this study sought to investigate the effect of employee participation on performance in the County Government of Kakamega. The study used descriptive research design. The target population for this study was 6,266 employees of the County Government of Kakamega. The study used a sample population of 375 employees. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect primary data. Data analysis was done using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that employee participation had a strong positive effect on employee performance. The study recommended that the County Government of Kakamega should come up with policy guidelines and procedures for engaging staff at various decision making levels.