The relationship between employee empowerment practices and employee perfromance in regional development authorities in Kenya

Abstract

Employee empowerment programs have been widely adopted in the public sector as a way to improve organizational performance. Empowered employees improve performance largely by finding innovative ways of correcting errors in service delivery and redesigning work processes. This study seeks to establish the relationship between employee empowerment practices and employee performance in Regional Development Authorities in Kenya. The study used descriptive study survey design. The population of the interest comprised of all employees of the six Regional Development Authorities and a total sample size of 173 employees were interviewed and respondents were randomly selected. The study used primary data collection method. The analysis was done mainly using descriptive statistics such as mean scores, frequencies, and percentages. Pearson product moment correlation technique was used to establish the strength of the relationship between employee empowerment practice and employee performance. Whereas employee empowerment practices were found to be moderately embraced in regional development authorities, employees were in agreement that employee performance practice was in place and was being used. The study concluded that employee empowerment practices has impact on employee performance In today’s global competiveness there is a great desire on the part of the employees to play an active role in organization activities and as such every effort should be made to accommodate employees views. Therefore the study recommends that employee empowerment practices should be supported by both top and middle level management in the regional development authorities as this will improve employees performance tremendously.