Welfare Practices and Employee Performance in Non-Governmental Organizations in Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

The study was to determine the relationship between employee welfare practices and employee performance in NGOs in Nairobi County, Kenya. The objectives of the research were to determine the relationship between financial support and employee performance, to establish the relationship between recreational support and employee performance, to assess the relationship between employee health support and employee performance, and to examine employee pension support and employee performance. to determine the moderating effect of top management commitment and employee performance in NGOs in Nairobi County, Kenya. Previous research shows a significant correlation between employee welfare practices and employee performance. This research supports the broader perspectives that employees are important for the competitive edge of organizations and their welfare is essential to enhance their performance. This research is backed by relevant theories such as human relations theory, Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the social reciprocity theory, the resource – based view theory and Herzberg’s two factor theory. The research design was a cross-sectional design that used both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The sampling technique was a purposeful, stratified, and simple random sampling technique. The target population was 14,323 employees in NGOs in Nairobi County, Kenya, a sample of 407 employees was selected, which included top management, middle management and lower-level management. Questionnaires were served to respondents as the primary data collection instruments. A pilot study was conducted to verify the reliability and validity of the tools used. The content validity was verified by the university experts who supervised the research, the reliability of the data was assessed using the constant alpha that required base of 0.7 in the social science studies. Data analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 25. The analysis incorporated frequencies, means, correlations, and multiple linear regression, along with inferential and descriptive statistics as diagnostic tests for the instruments. The findings of the research were presented using pie charts, graphs, and tables. The results indicated that employee financial support, recreational practices, health practices, and pension practices positively and significantly influenced employee performance. Additionally, it was found that top management commitment significantly moderates the relationship between welfare practices and employee performance. Specifically, top management commitment enhances the explanatory power of employee welfare practices in predicting employee performance within NGOs in Nairobi County, Kenya. The research concluded that welfare practices are crucial in improving employee performance in non-governmental organizations in Nairobi County, Kenya. The research concluded that NGOs in Nairobi County, Kenya should implement financial support, recreational support, health support, pension support, and involve top management commitment in all the processes of planning and implementation. The research further recommended further research to explore the relationship between employee welfare practices and performance in other service-oriented institutions, including the civil service. The study, therefore, forms a reference for empirical literature for future researchers.