THESE TITLE: Human Resource Practices and Employee Performance among Administration Police in Bungoma County, Kenya
STUDENT NAME: Belyndah Shitakwa Ligare
SUPERVISORS:
1. Dr. Sylvia Chebet Sirai
2. Dr. Victor L. Aliata
ABSTRACT
According to Kenya Police Service Annual Crime Reports (KPSACR) of 2016, the number of criminal offences is still on the increase with the 2013, 2014 and 2015 reports evidencing an offence number of 71832, 72,490 and 73,376 respectively. Based on this upward trend, it is still unclear if the trend is related to human resource practices such as performance appraisal, career development and promotions as applied in the administration police which in turn have an effect on the performance of the administration police. In the service industry, especially the Kenya National Police Service, little research has been conducted to show these relationships. The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of human resource management practices on the performance of administration police in Bungoma County, Kenya. The specific objectives were to: determine the influence of job promotion on performance, establish the relationship between performance appraisal and performance, assess the influence of career development on performance of administration police and examine the moderating influence of education level on the relationship between human resource practices and performance. Two theories guided the study: Two Factor Theory and Resource-Based Theory. The research adopted a descriptive survey design. The target population was 1,318 administration police officers in Bungoma County. A sample size of 384 respondents was used. Questionnaires were used to collect primary data Stratified random sampling technique was employed in selecting respondents. Data collected was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Results of the study were: career development had a positive, linear and significant (p-value is less than 0.05) with the employee performance; there was a statistically significant positive relationship between job promotion and employee performance; there was a statistically significant positive relationship between performance appraisals and employee performance and that there was a statistically significant and positive moderating influence of educational level on the relationship between human resource practices and employee performance. It was concluded that career development was ranked second according to the influence it had on employee performance (B=0.320, B=0.005; Job promotion had the least influence on employee performance (?=0.030, p=0.000; performance appraisals greatest influence on employee performance (B=0.604, p=0.000) and the R square change after incorporating education level in the model was 0.002 implying education level statistically and significantly moderates the relationship between human resource practices and employee performance. The following were the recommendations of the study: organizations should create opportunities for advancement of employees, offer training ground for career movement within the organisation; organizations should adhere strictly to its promotion policy, ensure promotion process is fair and employees are promoted based on merit; employees should be provided with feedback after performance appraisal and ensure that performance appraisal carried out is fair and provide an opportunity for self-review and reflection to employees and employees should be given equal opportunity to advance their education level and organization should strive to give scholarships to them to advance their academic studies. The findings of this study is expected to inform administration police management policy makers, the government and other stakeholders on better human resource practices that can be adopted to improve performance of staff.
