Effect of Employee Relations on Employee Performance in the Energy Sector in Nairobi City County, Kenya

Abstract

This study sought to find out the effect of employee relations on employee performance in the Energy sector in Nairobi County, Kenya. The study sought specifically to establish the effect of collective bargaining; conflict resolution, trade union, involvement & participation and employee communication on employee performance in the energy sector in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The target population of the study was 5,001 staff in the Energy Sector. A representative sample of 356 staff was obtained by use stratified random sampling. This study targeted both Management and Unionisable staff of all companies in the Energy Sector in Nairobi County. The study targets management staff who are charged with the responsibility of formulation and implementation of employee relations policies, procedures and strategies as well as Unionisable staff since they are affected by the policies, procedures and strategies. The study used a descriptive research design to measure the effect of employee relations on employee performance. The study used a questionnaire to collect data. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 22 was used to analyze data. Inferential statistics were used to establish the relationships that existed between the variables. The correlation coefficient was used to measure the relationship between independent variables and dependent variable while the regression analysis was used to measure the strength between the independent and dependent variables. Data was presented in form of tables, graphs and charts. The study found out that collective bargaining; conflict resolution, trade union, involvement & participation influence employee performance. The study also found out that motivation has a moderating influence of the relationship between employee relations and employee performance. The study concluded that employee performance in the energy sector will improve if the study variables collective bargaining; conflict resolution, trade union, involvement & participation and motivation are improved. The study therefore recommends that policy makers, government, the energy sector stakeholders and other interested parties should make policies that support improvement of collective bargaining; conflict resolution, trade union, involvement & participation and motivation. There is need also to invest in motivation strategies with the involvement of employees since findings indicated that the level of employee involvement was minimum on designing these strategies.