The influence of human resource practices on service delivery efficiency at the County Council of Meru Central

Abstract

The demand for effective and efficient delivery of services is increasingly becoming a challenge to both private and public sector. Emphasis in this regard is placed on the public sector organizations where the taxpayer demands to get nothing less than commensurate value for their taxes. Unfortunately not all organizations are able to live up to these challenges. This inability becomes a constant cause of concern, especially with the current Government policy of Performance Contract. This study was based on the County Council of Meru Central, focusing on how human resource practices affect the organizational efficiency.

The study was descriptive survey which used some quantitative statistics, mainly percentages. The sample size was 85 (53.1%) respondents out ofa total of 160 workers who were obtained through stratified random sampling. To cover as much ground of the study as possible both structured and unstructured questions were asked in a questionnaire used as the data collection instrument. Data was then analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively (using Statistical Package for Social Sciences) and figures presented in frequency tables, percentages and cross-tables. Results indicate no significant relationship between efficiency and recruitment and selection, training and development.

Inefficiency was for instance noted to be a plight affecting all cadres of job groups without exception. Training also did not seem to have significant effect on the organizational efficiency. But some relationship was noted between efficiency and employee relations and human resource planning as human resource practices. 54.5 % of respondents who had industrial issues mediated by the union were reported to be more efficient than those without issues. As for human resource planning, those who had briefing about their prospective jobs before they were employed indicated 34.0% efficiency as opposed to 10.5% of those who had no prior briefing about their jobs. Practical recommendations for efficiency were made and possible areas of further research were suggested.