Relationship between employee participation schemesand performance of State Corporations in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore the degree to which employee participation practices in the organization contribute to organizational performance. Global competition and declining influence of workers unions’ call for the public sector organizations to embrace new work systems that identify the common worker as an important element in the decision-making process. Past studies have shown that employee participation schemes are important agents of organizational performance. The objective of the study was to investigate the extentto which direct, indirect and financial participation schemes influence performance in the public sector. Employers and workers in the public sector are expected to benefit from this study by embracing and developing participation schemes that would motivate and encourage great performance by members. The study was a descriptive survey design and utilized a correlation strategy to establish the relationship between independent and dependent variables. Multi stage sampling procedure was used for this selection, which identified a sample of 378 respondents who were expected to participate. The sampling frame was from a list of 178 state corporations that participated in performance contract in 2010/2011, with a population of 86,878 workers. Questionnaire was the primary data collection instrument. A pilot study was carried out in two organizations. In the study, data was collected from a sample of respondents categorized as managerial, supervisory and ordinary workers in state corporations. Usable and valid questionnaires from 348 respondents in 20 select state corporations in Kenya were returned and used for the study. Descriptive and inferential statistics wereutilized.Correlation was analyzed using Pearson’s correlation method and with the help of SPSS tool, determined relationships between variables. All study variables had a linear(positive) relationship with organizational performance.Linear regression analysis was utilized to test the hypotheses. Hypotheses weretested to establish whether various participation schemes had significant influence on theperformance of state corporations in Kenya. Direct team based participation had the most influence on performance, followed by direct individual-based participation. Indirect participation had little influence, while financial participation’s influence was insignificant. Employee attitude had themost intervening effect on financial and indirect participation versus organizational performance, while it hadno significant influence on direct individual-based participation. Four hypotheses (H1, H2, H3 and H5) were confirmed while H4 was rejected. The study recommends privatization of non-performing state corporations and enhancement of public-private partnership (PPP) to boost financial participation. Further studies should determine factors that either inhibit or enhance implementation of participation schemes in Kenya’s public service; at both county and national levels of government.