Abstract:
Themainpurposeofthisstudywastotesttherelationshipbetweenlabourpractices andfirmproductivityintheexportprocessingzonesinKenya.Specifically,thestudy investigatedrelationshipbetweenlabourcontract,labourrelations,labour managementandlaboursatisfactionpracticesandfirmproductivitywhichisobtained byadditionalunitoflabour.Asurveyresearchdesignwasusedtogetbothprimary andsecondarydatainMombasaExportProcessingZoneinKenya.Structured questionnairesandoralinterviewswereadministeredtotherespondentsaccordingly toprovidedataonfirmproductivity.Ananalyticalresearchmethodologywasalso usedtoanalyzesecondarydatawhileanexpostfactoresearchdesignusedtoreport thingsastheyare.Amixedresearchmethodologywasusedduringdatapresentation wherebothdescriptiveandinferentialstatisticswereusedtomakeinferencesand drawconclusions.Reliabilityofinstrumentsandthecontentvaliditywerejudgedby thesupervisorsandthefieldexpertsduringthepilotstudywheretestandre-test methodwasusedtoobtainthereliabilityofinstrumentsαalpha=0.836.Thenull hypothesisformulatedwasthatthereisnorelationshipbetweenlabourpracticesand firmproductivityintheEPZsinKenya.Thestudysamplewasdeterminedusing Cochransamplingframeforthelargepopulationofabove10,000charactersyielding toasamplesizeof384respondents.PearsonCoefficientofCorrelationwasusedto measurethedegreeofassociationamongseveral(k)setofranking(N)objectsor itemsbetweenindependentvariableanddependentvariable.whilethenull hypothesis wastestedusingF-ratio2wayFisher‘sANOVATestatp<0.05Levelof SignificanceType1error(α=.05)wherep-value(β=0.95)Theresearchfindings usingthestandardizedcoefficientrevealedapositiverelationshipbetweenlabour practicesandfirmproductivityintheEPZsinKenyaHowever,furtheranalysistest wasdoneusingunstandardizedcoefficientswhichrevealedonlytwoattributesof theindependentvariableLabourContractandLabourManagementstatistically predictedthefirmproductivityintheEPZshence,thenullhypothesiswasrejected while,thetwoattributesoftheindependentvariableLabourRelationsandLabour SatisfactiondidnotstatisticallypredictfirmproductivityintheEPZs.Theresearcher therefore,recommendsfurtherstudyonotherformsoflabourrelationseitherformal orinformalandtheirinfluenceonfirmproductivityinfirmswithmultipleand complexwebstructureofmanagement.Toconclude;firmsdrivenbymarket pressuresneedtoaddintheirgoalsimprovedqualityandproductivity,greater flexibility,continuousinnovation,andtheabilitytochangeinrespondingrapidlyto marketneedsanddemands.EffectiveHRMisalsoveryvitalfortheattainmentof thesegoalswithimprovedquality andproductivitylinkedtomotivationwhichcanbe achievedthroughtraining,employeeinvolvementandimprovingbothextrinsicand intrinsic rewards.
