| dc.description.abstract | Youth groups participate in nation building and improving their management could help address
youth disillusionment and bring wider benefits to the country. The purpose of this study was to
investigate factors influencing performance of youth groups in Isiolo town Isiolo County. The
objectives of the study included: to examine the influence of information and communication
technology on the performance of youth groups, to investigate the influence of project
management skills on performance of youth groups, to establish how funds utilization influence
performance of youth groups, to examine the influence of group member characteristics on
performance of youth groups and the fifth was to assess the influence of organizational strategic
planning on performance of youth groups. To achieve this, the study adopted descriptive
research design where the respondents were requested to describe the circumstances facing their
youth groups. The study was carried out in Isiolo town which lies 285 kilometers north of
Nairobi city. The target population was 500 and the estimated sample size was 217 Based on
Krejcie and Morgan’s (1970) table for determining sample size. Respondents were
proportionately drawn from each of the 24 identified active youth groups and 25 key informants
selected from the accessible population. Questionnaires were used to collect data from the youth
respondents and interview guide used to gather information from key informants. The completed
questionnaires were coded, entered into SPSS, analyzed and presented in form of tables of
frequencies and percentages. Interviews with key informants were used to collect data on demographic, socio-economic, youth groups and youth related information as well as knowledge,
attitudes and practices. The tool for the study was piloted for reliability with members of Isiolo
disabled youth group. The study found that the ICT facility mostly accessed by youth are phones
(mobile, CDMA etc) in their youth groups as indicated by majority 114(65.1%) of the
respondents of which they used them for less than 50 minutes weekly for group activities at
90(51.4%) of the respondents. It was further found out that youth groups did not have computers
as indicated by majority 151(86.3%) of youth members. The spearman’s correlation coefficient
was a strong, positive one between ICT and performance, which was statistically significant (rs =
.669, p = .035).It was established that 111(63.4%) of youth groups had written guidelines for
funds utilization. It was also established that the sources of funds to run the group’s activities
was from members contributions as indicated by majority 115(65.7%) of youth respondents. The
spearman’s correlation coefficient indicated that there was a moderately positive correlation
between funds utilization and performance, which was statistically significant (rs = .559, p =
.036). Majority 130(74.3%) of youth members indicated that membership from diverse cultural
orientation did not cause group decision making to be difficult. It was further found out that
majority 167(95.4%) of youth groups had mission statement which was agreed by all members
and used to guide goals and activities. It was revealed that progress reports in the groups were
done to inform members on group’s status as indicated by majority 99(56.6%) every 1 - 6
months. The study recommended that to enhance youth groups’ performance the government
(county and national) releases adequate resources and equipments preceded with formal training
to youth groups. The study also recommended that ICT facilities be diversified and made
available with requisite skills improvement among youth groups to help them take advantage of
technological advancement. The study suggests a comparative study of the influence of group
dynamics on the performance of youth groups in arid and semi arid lands in Kenya. | en_US |
