Perceived factors affecting performance of customer service staff in water resources management authority

Abstract

In an organisation, people are the key resources through which all other objectives are achieved. Without united human efforts no organisation can achieve its goals. Employee performance is considered as one of the important factors of production. It has become commonplace to say that the management of human resources is and should be a partner in developing and implementing an organisation’s strategy. Organisations today are grappling with revolutionary trends; accelerating product and technological change, international competition, deregulation, demographic changes, and a shift towards a service society. These trends have increased dramatically the degree of competition in virtually all industries. Organisations will either be forced to become competitive high-performers or will be phased out by their competitors. The public sector institutions in Kenya is characterised by poor customer service leading to a lot of dissatisfaction and loss of revenue. This has prompted the need to draw more attention to customer care and redefine service quality from the customer’s perspective. Fletcher identified challenges of having an efficient customer service as dependent on staffing policies, motivation, remuneration and ability of staff to adopt new technologies. This study focuses on identification of the perceived factors affecting the performance of customer service staff at Water Resources Management Authority. The study included administering questionnaires to a hundred and fifty staff of Water Resources Management Authority comprising of front office staff, enforcement/commercial services staff and management. Completed questionnaires were then edited for vi completeness and consistency and then analysed/interpreted using descriptive statistics. The research findings were that the performance of customer service staff at Water Resources Management Authority is low due to lack of training opportunities for all staff members, lack of training tailored to the needs of the staff, lack of recognition of staff performance and uniform compensation of all staff regardless of their performance. This has contributed to low motivation of customer service staff negatively affecting their performance.