Determinants of employee morale and satisf action among public servants in Kenya: the case of the public service commission (psc)
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Date
2014
Authors
Ohando, Ezekiel Odhiambo
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Abstract
Employee morale and satisfaction have continued to oscillate up and down in the public service
since 1990s despite numerous efforts on reforms that have been undertaken by the government on
leadership, management, human resource policies, employee perception, training and development
and salary and pay structure which contributes immensely on positive morale and satisfaction. The
study investigated the determinants of staff morale and satisfaction among public servants in Kenya
with a case study of the Public Service Commission. The study was based on primary data
collected that gave each respondent an equal chance of selection from the population that
represented staff at Public Service Commission. Data was analysed using descriptive and inferential
statistics that provided information on estimations, association description, relationship of data and
prediction. The descriptive survey method targeted the population of 209 respondents where a
sample of 63 was drawn and self-administered questionnaire was used to gather data. A 5 point
Likerts scale was used to measure respondents' morale and satisfaction. The target population was
stratified into six departments at the Public Service Commission. The descriptive research adopted
in this study aimed at collecting information from the respondents on nature of work, employee
perception, work conditions, management style, policies, and competitive factors forcing change,
needs, expectations and attitude of employee and employer. The data was coded, analysed using
SPSS package, cleaned. Responses were grouped into categorical variables for analysis purposes
using descriptive and inferential statistics. The researcher then used inferential statistics to estimate
numerical characteristics of data, described association within data using regression analysis to
communicate research findings. The study found out that despite many studies by early theorists of
morale and satisfaction on determinants that contribute to acceptable level of job satisfaction and
morale, employee unrest persisted. Factors that affected morale and satisfaction included
leadership, management, salary structure, policies on reward, training and work environment. The
study concluded that morale and satisfaction are psychological and tend to support unrests with
undesirable consequences of absenteeism, complaints, frustrations, errors and lack of discipline on
parts of employees. On the other hand employers need to promote employee needs to be in tune
with organizational goals and provide adequate compensation to its employee using sound policies.
Morale building should be two way and show concern for both employer and employee. When
structures like organization and salary are undertaken ownership from both parties need to be
agreed upon as strategy for building of high morale and satisfaction in the organization.
Description
Master of Public Policy and Administration of Kenyatta University, 74p.
June, 2014