Influence of Shared Leadership on Service Delivery by County Government Workers in Kenya

Abstract

Shared leadership entails sharing power and influence broadly among the workforce members rather than centralizing it in the hands of a single individual who acts in the clear role of a leader for effective and efficient service delivery. The general objective of the study was to establish the influence of shared leadership on service delivery by county government workers in Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were to determine the influence of shared responsibility, widespread communication, shared decision-making and workforce Autonomy on service delivery by county government workers. The study was moderated by national government policies on resource distribution, monitoring and Evaluation. This study was anchored on four theories namely; Shared Leadership Theory, Actor-Network Theory, Participative Decision Making Theory and Self-Determination Theory. The study population was 561 County Government workers who were drawn from 6 counties in the Lower Eastern region of Kenya. These county Government workers were Chief Officers, Departmental Directors, Sub-County Administrators and Members of County Assembly. The study employed purposive sampling design to select 228 respondents. Primary data was collected by use of questionnaires. A pilot study was conducted to detect weaknesses in the design and instrumentation. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics, correlation and regression analysis. The study used multiple regression analysis to establish the influence of shared leadership on service delivery by county government workers. Out of the 228 questionnaires distributed to the respondents, 208 were completed giving a response rate of 91.22%. Cronbach’s Alpha was used to test for internal reliability of each variable used in the study. The null hypotheses were rejected based on the significance of the parameter in the regression mode (t-test). The findings were that independent variables had positive and significant influence on the dependent variable. The findings also indicated that all the independent variables were positively and significantly correlated and that they all significantly influenced the dependent variable. These findings show they could be used to predict the level of service delivery by county government workers. By carrying out F-test the study further revealed that there was a significant influence of all independent variables combined on the dependent variable. However, the moderating variable did not have significant influence on the independent variables that influenced dependent variable. It is recommended that mechanisms are put in place to ensure that sharing of responsibilities and communication strategies are developed, enforced and matched with the right resources so as to ensure streamlined execution of government business. That decision making processes need to be consultative and workers should be empowered to be autonomous so that they can put in their best without pressure of over-supervision so as to deliver more effectively and efficiently. Further, government policies on resource distribution and evaluation need to be followed closely. The mechanism for enforcing the extant law on resource use and allocation should be invigorated. Lastly, there is a need to have the indicators for service delivery, among them being completion of projects according to plan. The need to carry out detailed studies on other emergent variables that influence service delivery by county government workers such as political influence, nepotism, tribalism, employee motivation among others. This study focused on the Lower Eastern region of Kenya, therefore a need to carry out comparative studies using the same study design focusing on other regions of Kenya.