FACTORS INFLUENCING MOTIVATION OF EMPLOYEES IN KENYA COUNTY GOVERNMENTS (A CASE STUDY OF NAKURU COUNTY GOVERNMENT HEAD OFFICE)

Abstract

It is a fact that success in every organization depends on the quality of its human resources both skilled and unskilled labor. Studies have shown that in today’s competitive business environment, success is increasingly a function of effective human resources management. In the recent past Nakuru County Government faced performance issues. The employees joined forces with the members of county assembly in calling for the Governor’s resignation. This shows dissatisfaction on the part of employees towards the management. Such management problems can be solved if good management programs are initiated and employees motivated appropriately. It is in light of this that the research sought to investigate the effect of motivation on employees’ performance at Nakuru County Government. The specific objectives were: to establish the influence of positive reinforcement on employee motivation at the Nakuru County Government, to identify how fair treatment of employees affects employee motivation, to determine the impact of performance based reward on employee motivation, and to establish the influence of effective discipline and punishment on employee motivation at the Nakuru County Government. This research adopted the case study design targeting 92 management and staff members at the Nakuru County Government that were drawn using simple random sampling. The questionnaires were used as instruments of data collection. Data was analyzed in using both descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Inferential statistics involving correlations and regression analysis were done to determine the relationship between the dependent variable (motivation) and the independent variables. The findings revealed positive reinforcement had the most significant effect on employee motivation at the Nakuru County Government (β = 0.405, p < .05). Fair treatment of employees also significantly affected employee motivation at the organization (β = 0.267, p < .05) as the second most important factor. Other findings revealed that a significant relationship exists between performance based reward and employee motivation (β = 0.185, p < .05), however, effective discipline and punishment did not significantly promote employee motivation at the Nakuru County Government (β = 0.127; p = .200). The study recommends that; the county government management should be more consultative when engaging the staff in order to make them more confident in their work and foster good relations with the management and each other; employees should be involved more in the decision making in order to give them a better perspective of their work and organization; more allocations for financial resources for employee training and motivation to enable them to be more productive and eager to continue serving. Finally, it is important that the organization devise other objective approaches to disciplinary issues. More studies should be done on; factors influencing role conflicts in the county governments and the effects of provision of social amenities on the motivation of state employees.