Influence of employees empowerment on employee perfomance in technical training Institutes in Meru County, Kenya

Abstract

According to Riechi (2010) dynamics and the ambiguity and complexity of today's organizations is accepted as unavoidable. In order to overcome the uncertainty, complexity and dynamic environment, the management is empowering and benefiting from the cooperation and participation of employees through the acquisition of knowledge and skills that quickly becomes obsolete. Among the factors that affect the very survival of organizations is human resources factor. Therefore, a critical mass of educated people who are equipped with appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes is required in order to achieve the country's political, economic and social goals that are articulated in Kenya Vision 2030, (2008) policy document. Therefore, to bridge this gap we sought to find out the factors that influence employee empowerment on employee performance in Technical Training Institutions with special focus on Technical Training Institutes in Meru County, Kenya. The specific objectives that guided this study were: to determine whether participative management affects performance of Technical Training Institutes' employees, to establish how rewards and recognition influence performance of Technical Training Institutes employees, to establish how teamwork affects performance of Technical Training Institutes employees, to investigate the effects of training on performance of Technical Training Institutes employees and to investigate the effects of work environment on performance of Technical Training Institutes employees .The target population composed of 227 teaching staff and 93 non-teaching members as per the three Technical Training Institutes registry, as at 2nd May 2013. The sampling method used was probability sampling technique where the researcher employed simple random sampling method to select the respondents. Data was collected through administration of questionnaires designed based on the research objectives. Quantitative approach was used in data analysis. The data collected was then be coded, entered, and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Descriptive statistics included frequencies, measures of central tendencies and dispersion. Inferential statistics included regression and analysis of variances and these was used to determine whether participative management, rewards and recognition, teamwork, training and work environment affects employee performance. The study found out that a good number of employees in the technical training institute were familiar with a matters of employee empowerment. Participative management easily empowers employee where it practiced because the employee feel a sense of trust and belonging. The extent to which reward and recognition influence employee empowerment in the organization was observed to very high influence sited by majority of the respondent study. Teamwork is considered to very important to determine how work in the organization is performed. It was clear on how presence or lack of training and development influence employee empowerment considering some of the technical institutions were doing in terms of performance hence it was noted that training prevailed in technical training institution. Finally working environment is also key to employee toward daily their performance. Therefore, we can conclude that participative management, reward and recognition, teamwork, training and work environment that influence employee empowerment on employee performance in Technical Training Institutions.