The Relationship Between Organizational Performance Determinants And Employee Work Behaviour In Public Universities In Western Kenya Region: Moderating Role Of Social Competence

Abstract

Organisations all over the globe rely on variables like human capital, excellent human resource management practises, physical resources, and the conduct and attitude of their workers to accomplish their goals. However, some features inside many contemporary organisations render the workplace vulnerable to undesirable employee conduct, which contravenes the significant organizational norms, threatening the interests of both the organization and its members. This pervasive and expensive behaviour is a problem which is responsible for giving an organization a negative image to both its external and internal stakeholders. This study therefore sought to establish the relationship between organizational performance determinants and work behaviour among employees of public universities in Western Kenya region as moderated by social competence. The specific objectives of the study were to determine the relationship between organizational culture on employee work behaviour, workplace stressors on employee work behaviour, quality of employees on employee work behaviour and organizational justice on employee work behaviour in public universities in Western Kenya region, and the moderating effect of social competence on this relationship. The study was based on the Social Exchange Theory, Equity Theory and the Job Demands-Resource Model. It used the positivist research philosophy, and adopted the explanatory survey design. The target population included both academic and non-academic staff of the six public universities, totalling 4,476 employees, with a sample of 506. Stratified sampling design was used to choose 6 public universities in Western Kenya. Data was collected using questionnaires. Piloting was done at Moi University to pre-test the research instrument. Validity was achieved through factor analysis using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to extract the significant factors. All the variables were reliable. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Inferential statistics, mainly multiple regression and Pearson correlation were used. The study found that organizational culture, workplace stressors, quality of employees, organizational justice and social competence all had a significant relationship with employee work behaviour. The study also concluded that social competence significantly moderates the influence of organizational performance determinants on employee work behaviour in public universities in Western Kenya region. This implied that the public universities need to entrench and strengthen strategies for the improvement of the performance determinants and also embrace social competence in order to achieve positive employee work behaviour. The study recommended that public universities should strive to create a positive environment within the workplace and to stimulate strong organization cultures, analyze their employees’ sources of stress at work and put appropriate measures in place to reduce them to a minimum, source and maintain quality employees, enhance justice and address perceived organizational injustices and encourage the development of social competence among employees. The study findings contribute to the existing body of knowledge in the field of Human Resource Management (HRM) and Industrial and Organizational Psychology (IOP) by justifying the need for organizations to put in place resources and procedures that actively promote employee performance and positive behaviour.