Peter Philip WambuaMutisya, Augustine M.2024-01-312024-01-312023https://ir-library.ku.ac.ke/handle/123456789/27360A Research Project Submitted to the School of Business in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Masters of Business Administration (Human Resource Management), Kenyatta University.Delivering services of high quality is an important pursuit for service providers that seek to create and provide value to their customers. Through the provision of high levels of service quality, companies can achieve increased customer satisfaction, loyalty and long- term profitability. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between employee retention practices and service delivery in the hotel industry in Machakos County, Kenya. The variables of interest were leadership style, employee training, employee rewards, employee promotions, and service delivery. Specifically, the objectives were: to determine the relationship between leadership styles and service delivery in hotels in Machakos town; to establish the relationship between employee promotion and service delivery in hotels in Machakos town; to examine the relationship between employee training and service delivery in hotels in Machakos town and to determine the relationship between employee rewards practices and service delivery in hotels in Machakos town. The glaring inadequacy of literature addressing any possible relationship between employee retention practices and service delivery within hotel industry, especially in Machakos County necessitated undertaking of this study. This problem was considered with the revelation that mot hotels often engage employees on temporary terms rather than permanent and pensionable terms. The study was founded on the concepts from expectancy-value theory, human capital theory, and goal-setting theory. The study made use of a descriptive research design in which stratified sampling approach was used to select 18, 45, and 144 respondents from large, medium, and small hotels, respectively. The respondents included representation from three levels; general managers, Human Resources managers, and hotel managers. Primary data was collected by the use of structured questionnaires based on the objectives of the study after the instrument had been tested for validity and reliability. The questionnaires were coded and analysed with the aid of SPSS. The study also used descriptive and inferential analysis to establish the relationship between each of the retention practices and service delivery in the hotel industry in Machakos County. A regression analysis of the data revealed that employee retention practices have significant influence on service delivery within the hotel industry. Four employee retention practices, including leadership styles, employee promotion, employee training, and employee reward were found to have direct influence and quantifiable contributions to the overall service delivery within the sampled hotels. The study concludes by pointing out at training as the most influential employee retention practice on the level of service delivery within the hotel industry in Machakos County. This was evidenced by a Beta coefficient of 0.338 and a p-value of 0.000. Therefore, the study recommended that top management within the hotel industry should prioritize development of more relevant and regular training programs for their employees. Other recommendations include the need for decision makers within hotel industry to refine their reward systems to meet the expectation of the employees and re-evaluation of employee promotion criteria and practices to make it more aligned to the industry core business of service delivery.enEmployee RetentionService DeliveryHotel IndustryMachakos CountyKenyaThesis