The Impact of Communication on Employee Motivation in the Kenyan Public Service: a Case Study of Postal Corporation of Kenya

Abstract

Communication plays an important role in determining whether an organization succeeds or not. Motivation is a set of attitudes and values that influence a person or an employee to act in a specific goal directed manner and how to blend a rich, strong and effective mix of motivators is a major dilemma facing many organizations. The core of motivation is human needs/wants and their satisfaction. This is manifested in the fact that employees have different needs and different priorities and thus managers must be able to apply different motivational tools to satisfy the different employee needs and wants. The inner drives within an individual are needs to be activated to give rise to appropriate behavior, where such behavior could lead to the fulfillment of a need such as job satisfaction. This study sought the impact of communication on employee motivation in the Kenyan Public Service a case study of Postal Corporation of Kenya. This study used descriptive research design to obtain information on the impact of communication on employee motivation. PCK's staff consists 315 employees was the target population. A sample of 95(30%) was selected using stratified random sampling for the study and a questionnaire was the preferred instrument for data collection to extract the demographic profile of the respondents as it was assumed that the respondents' attributes usually influence their behaviors, attitudes and how they respond to the other questions in the questionnaire. Before the real research, the questionnaire was pre-tested to gauge its validity and reliability. Data analysis which is the process of cleaning, transforming and interpreting data to highlight useful information, suggestions and conclusions was done. The data analysis illustrated the relationship between the independent variables which is communication and employee motivation as the dependent variable. The findings revealed that communication had a motivating effect on employees at Postal Corporation of Kenya thus translating this motivation into job satisfaction. However PCK staff members indicated that they were not satisfied with the channels employed in communicating by (34%), reducing the efficiency of communication negatively affecting their drive to meet their targets and goals. The study therefore recommends that Postal Corporation of Kenya should consider timely feedback, proper channels of communication and immediate communication.