Influence of Pay Disparities among Employees on Organizational Commitment in County Governments in Kenya (A Case of County Government of Nakuru)

Abstract

This study sought to establish the influence of pay disparities among employees on organizational commitment of employees in the county government of Nakuru, Kenya. The study specifically sought to establish the influence of position based pay disparities, employee pay expectations and internal relations based on pay on the organizational commitment of employees in the county government of Nakuru. The study was based on equity theory and prospect theory. A descriptive research study design was employed for the study. The target population was composed of the county employees in the Nakuru county government headquarters who are 1430 in number. The researcher sampled 143 of them to participate in the study. A close ended questionnaire constructed on a 5-point Likert scale was used as the only primary data collection instrument. The questionnaire was piloted using fourteen respondents drawn from county government employees and later exempted from the main study. Piloting helped the researcher authenticate the questionnaire and test its reliability. Validity of the instrument was enhanced through consultation with my research supervisor. The data was collected using drop and pick method. Data collected was fed into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 software for analysis. Data was analyzed in form of descriptive (frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations) as well as inferential (Pearson product moment correlation, and regression analysis) statistics. Findings were presented in tables and discussions thereof. The study established that position based pay and employees pay expectations had positive significant relationships with organizational commitment in the county government of Nakuru. On the other hand employee internal relations based on pay did not have a significant relationship with organizational commitment in the county government. Regression analysis showed that position based pay and employees pay expectations significantly influenced organizational commitment. However internal relations did not significantly account for variations in the organizational commitment in the county government. The study therefore concluded that position based pay and employee pay expectations significantly influence the commitment of employees in the county government. The study recommended that the county government administration ought to ensure uniform policy measures regarding the pay structure are put in place to guide employee remunerations. Further the county requires to seek harmonization of the different pay rolls in existence to ensure equity in employees pay thus enhancing their commitment.