Influence of Organizational Restructuring activities on Employee Commitment in State Corporations in Kenya

Abstract

This study sought to determine how restructuring activities affected employee commitment in State Corporations in Kenya. The increase in global competitiveness, together with advances in technology and ongoing changes in the environment, requires organizations to continuously adapt and be willing to change their structures, methods and practices to remain competitive. In some cases they need to transform themselves from rigid bureaucracies into leaner, more flexible operations also leads to the need to restructure. In quest to improve service delivery restructuring has become increasingly prevalent in Kenya today. Scholars found that restructuring has a significant attribution to employee commitment. The study was guided by the overall objective which was to examine the influence of restructuring activities on employee commitment in State Corporations in Kenya. The study tested the hypothesis that downsizing, reviewed policies and practices, psychosocial support, compensation changes and job redesign influenced employee commitment in state corporations in Kenya. The Unit of analysis was state corporations and individual employees formed the unit of observation because surviving employees are often called upon to assume expanded roles, functions and responsibilities in a post restructuring environment. The study covered 20 state corporations with a workforce compliment of 33,407 employees. The State Corporations were selected using purposive method of sampling. Respondents in the study included 381 employees across all cadres. These corporations are those which had completed restructuring. Descriptive research was used in a representative sample of employees from restructured state corporations. The questionnaire containing both structured and unstructured questions was used as the main data collection instrument. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics by means of SPSS a statistical package. The study established that downsizing, policies and practices, restructuring psychosocial support, compensation changes and job redesign influenced employees’ commitment. The study found downsizing, reviewed policies and practices, psychosocial support, compensation changes and job redesign were significant predictors of employee commitment. Overall the study demonstrated positive relationship between restructuring activities and employee commitment. The study showed that some employees from the organizations under study felt more dedicated to perform their jobs after restructuring however, a minority felt their supervisors did not involve them in decision making. The results further revealed that some supervisors did not listen to their juniors and employee benefits information was not regularly communicated. The study recommended that involvement of staff in decision- making process is vital and could be enhanced by ensuring more comprehensive feedback on staff matters and by providing opportunities for further decisions and debate, even when ideas are not considered feasible by the senior management team. The state corporations gained practical insights into the factors influencing employee commitment thereby enriching their knowledge how to increase employee commitment. Future researchers may study other variables that were not captured in the current study.