FACTORS AFFECTING EMPLOYEES PRODUCTIVITY IN COUNTY GOVERNMENTS IN KENYA; A CASE STUDY OF THE COUNTY GOVERNMENT OF LAIKIPIA

Abstract

Productivity is a requirement for organizations employees. There are various factors attributed to the level of productivity in an organization. The recently formed county governments in Kenya have been faced with the problem of poor service delivery which can be attributed to employee low productivity. As such, this study set out to understand some of the factors that have resulted in the low productivity among county governments with the Laikipia county government being a case study. The study has the specific objective of understanding the effects of motivation, staff skills, performance appraisal and leadership and on the productivity of employees at the county government of Laikipia. Literature review has shown that indeed various factors are at play in determining the level of productivity. However, the specific effects these factors have on productivity of the employee still needs to be determined. For this reason, the researcher has set out to collect and analyze data on the same. The study has employed a descriptive format where the effects of any given factor are described. The data collection has been done on the basis of a questionnaire which offers a lot of advantages which the researcher has taken. Data was collected from a sample drawn from employees of the Laikipia County working at the headquarters in Nanyuki. The sample is determined on a stratified random case to give every employee an equal chance to be part of the sample. Data collected is analyzed manually and presented in tables and percentages largely describing the correlation between a variable and the effect it has on productivity. From the analysis, the study has found out that indeed, there is a strong correlation between motivation and productivity whereby, the more motivated employees are, the higher the likelihood of more productivity. In case of performance appraisal, it has been found to have a largely negative effect on productivity. In the same token, the study has found out that workers skills and levels of education are important to a very large extent in raising productivity. However, leadership seems to be most influential factor affecting productivity. The overall effect is that poor and uninspiring leadership tends to kill productivity. The study has recommended that county government leadership needs to facilitate training and acquisition of skills for the employees to be more productive. It also needs to motivate the employees for productivity to rise. In the case of performance appraisal, the method used for this purpose is currently demoralizing employees leading to disaffection and thus low productivity. The leadership needs to be more inspiring to the employees. Dull or poor leadership is found to lower productivity by a very large extent. The results of the findings are important to the other county governments and the national government and indeed to all organizations in that they can be used as guide in enhancing productivity