THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPOWERMENT AND PERFORMANCE IN THE CITY COUNCIL OF NAIROBI

Abstract

Local authorities in Kenya have been known for poor performance. In the recent past, the trend has changed due to the introduction of performance contracting where employees must set and meet work targets from their supervisors, hence the need to be enabled to perform. The local authorities’ service provision would be largely improved with the implementation of employee empowerment within the local authorities. This study sought to establish the extent to which the City Council of Nairobi (CCN) had put in place employee empowerment programs and also to determine the relationship between employee empowerment practice and the performance of the City Council of Nairobi. In view of the above, a case study design was deemed appropriate to fulfill the objectives of the study, since data for research was obtained from one organization. The population of interest comprised all the employees of the City Council of Nairobi which was picked owing to the fact that it is the largest local authority in Kenya and is therefore expected to engage in the best human resource practices. A sample of 60 employees, 4 from each of the 15 departments comprised the respondents who were selected randomly. The study used both primary and secondary data. The primary data was collected through a structured questionnaire administered on drop and pick basis. Data on performance as measured by return on assets (ROA) was collected from secondary sources. 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 and significance of the relationship between empowerment and performance.Findings of this study reveal that the employee empowerment score in the City Council of Nairobi indicate that the employees are empowered to a large extent. This is demonstrated by an average score of 3.546. The study also found that there is a very strong positive correlation between employee empowerment and performance. The study concluded that employee empowerment had a great positive influence on the performance of the City Council of Nairobi. Key words: performance contracting, employee empowerment, business process reengineering, total quality management, performance management, local authority, return on assets, performance.

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