Abstract:
Employee counseling helps the employee and the employer organization to identify
weaknesses, and formulate strategies to improve performance through which the
organization meets its goals and objectives. The aim of this study was to examine the
relationship between workplace stressors and organizational performance in Kenya’s
flower industry. The specific objectives were to establish the influence of employee’s
financial stress on organizational performance in Kenya’s flower industry, to examine
the influence of employee’s workplace relationships on organizational performance in
Kenya’s flower industry, to determine the influence of employee’s working conditions
on organizational performance in Kenya’s flower industry and determine the moderating
effect of counseling on organizational performance in Kenya’s flower industry. The
research adopted cross section survey research design and the target population were
organizations in the flower industry in Kenya. The instrument of data collection was
semi-structured questionnaires. The data collected was analyzed using descriptive and
inferential statistics, and presented in the form of frequency distribution tables, pie
charts, graphs, means, modes and percentages, SPSS was used to achieve this. Pearson’s
correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis was the main tool to test
relationships among variables. The study established that there existed an average level
of financial stress within the organization that was associated with the overall
organizational performance. The study also found out that, there was average level of
workplace relationship, and working conditions within the flower sector were fair which
contributed to organizational performance. The employees perceived themselves as
always timely in performing their duties with high proportion always achieving their
targets. The study concluded that counseling had a moderating effect on the relationship
between workplace stressors and organizational performance in Kenya’s flower
industry. The study recommended that flower organizations should base evaluation of
their employees’ performance on their accomplishments and identify the reasons
affecting the performance. Organizations should work hard to improve the workers
financial situations through balanced payment and training. Organizations need to
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maximize the use of counseling in their respective managerial systems, in order to
correct the behaviour of employees with low performance and make them more efficient
and effective. It also recommended that the Agricultural Employer’s Association of
which flower organizations are part of should develop a Workplace Counseling Policy
for their employees to ensure their wellness as well as maximize on their performance.
