Influence of organizational restructuring activities on employee commitment in state corporations in Kenya
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Date
2017
Authors
Omwenga, Emmah
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology
Abstract
This study sought to determine how restructuring activities affected employee
commitment in State Corporations in Kenya. The increase in global competitiveness,
together with advances in technology and ongoing changes in the environment, requires
organizations to continuously adapt and be willing to change their structures, methods
and practices to remain competitive. In some cases they need to transform themselves
from rigid bureaucracies into leaner, more flexible operations also leads to the need to
restructure. In quest to improve service delivery restructuring has become increasingly
prevalent in Kenya today. Scholars found that restructuring has a significant attribution
to employee commitment. The study was guided by the overall objective which was to
examine the influence of restructuring activities on employee commitment in State
Corporations in Kenya. The study tested the hypothesis that downsizing, reviewed
policies and practices, psychosocial support, compensation changes and job redesign
influenced employee commitment in state corporations in Kenya. The Unit of analysis
was state corporations and individual employees formed the unit of observation because
surviving employees are often called upon to assume expanded roles, functions and
responsibilities in a post restructuring environment. The study covered 20 state
corporations with a workforce compliment of 33,407 employees. The State Corporations
were selected using purposive method of sampling. Respondents in the study included
381 employees across all cadres. These corporations are those which had completed
restructuring. Descriptive research was used in a representative sample of employees
from restructured state corporations. The questionnaire containing both structured and
unstructured questions was used as the main data collection instrument. Data was
analyzed using descriptive statistics by means of SPSS a statistical package. The study
established that downsizing, policies and practices, restructuring psychosocial support,
compensation changes and job redesign influenced employees’ commitment. The study
found downsizing, reviewed policies and practices, psychosocial support, compensation
changes and job redesign were significant predictors of employee commitment. Overall
the study demonstrated positive relationship between restructuring activities and
employee commitment. The study showed that some employees from the organizations
under study felt more dedicated to perform their jobs after restructuring however, a
minority felt their supervisors did not involve them in decision making. The results
further revealed that some supervisors did not listen to their juniors and employee
benefits information was not regularly communicated. The study recommended that
involvement of staff in decision- making process is vital and could be enhanced by
ensuring more comprehensive feedback on staff matters and by providing opportunities
for further decisions and debate, even when ideas are not considered feasible by the
senior management team. The state corporations gained practical insights into the factors
influencing employee commitment thereby enriching their knowledge how to increase
employee commitment. Future researchers may study other variables that were not
captured in the current study.
Description
Keywords
Organizational restructuring, Employee commitment