Employee engagement and performance of research and training state corporations in Kenya
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Date
2018-04
Authors
Cheche, Stephen Gikonyo
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
Research and training are very important drivers of economic development and account
for differences in development levels between and among countries. For this reason, the
African continent is seen to lag behind in development due to under investment in
research and training. In Kenya, the country’s economic blue print; Vision 2030 has
recognised the critical role of science, technology, innovation and training in moving the
country to a middle income status. The government of Kenya implements its research and
training agenda through a number of state corporations charged with the responsibility of
research as well as training. However, performance of the public service in general and
that of state corporations in particular has over the years been criticised due to
unpredictable and unsatisfactory performance. Research and training state corporations
have specifically been criticised due to poor linkage with stakeholders to facilitate
demand driven research and training, slow pace of commercialisation of their services
and failure to put up a mechanism to link research programmes with national priorities.
Further, previous empirical studies on performance of state corporations in Kenya have
paid little attention to the role of employee engagement even though there is empirical
support that it has significant influence on organisational performance. Therefore, this
study sought to investigate the influence of employee engagement on performance of
research and training state corporations in Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to:
determine the effect of traits, psychological state and behavioural engagements on
performance of research and training state corporations in Kenya; to determine the
moderating effect of demographic characteristics and the mediating effect of
organisational commitment on the relationship between employee engagement and
performance of research and training state corporations in Kenya. The study was
anchored on resource based view and stakeholder theories and supplemented by social
exchange, expectancy and work adjustment theories. A positivistic philosophy was
adopted in order to investigate relationships among the variables. Descriptive and
explanatory research designs were used to describe the variables and establish the nature
of the relationships among them. The target population of the study was nine research and
training state corporations in Kenya which had a total of 5728 employees. A census of the
corporations was carried out supported by a multi stage sampling strategy to select
participants which resulted in a sample of 378 respondents. A response rate of 70% was
achieved. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the characteristics of the variables
using aggregate mean score and standard deviation. The hypotheses were tested using
multiple and hierarchical regressions. Adjusted R2 was used to measure the amount of
variation in the dependent variable that was attributed to changes in the independent
variables. The result indicates that traits, psychological state and behavioural
engagements significantly influence performance of research and training state
corporations in Kenya accounting for 43% of changes in performance. The influence of
employee engagement on performance was found to be moderated by demographic
characteristics of age, tenure and level of education while the relationship was found to be
partially mediated by organisational commitment. The study concluded that employers
should take in to account personality traits while hiring and assigning responsibilities to
employees. Further, employers should create conducive conditions in the work place as
this leads to acceptance of organisational goals as well as motivates employees to put in
extra effort to ensure their achievement. Lastly, organisations should not only strive to
have a diversified work force while also creating conditions that lowers staff turnover, but
should be keen to hire people with high levels of education if they are to improve
organisational performance.
Description
A thesis submitted to the school of business for the award of the degree of doctor of philosophy in business administration (human resource management) of Kenyatta University. April, 2018