CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background of the study

                        Employee performance management is an organizational process that aligns the employee measures, skills, competency, development plans and delivery of results. The business dictionary defines it as activities related to a job that is required of an employee, and how well these are done.

                        In an organizational setting, there are different types of resources that are  used  to  enhance  the  smooth  operations  of  an  organization  such  as  human  capital, money, machinery and raw materials. Out of all these resources, human capital is the only living resource that an organization has. 

                        Any  organization  can  be  able  to  afford  the right  materials  or  enough  money  or  even  up-to-date  machinery  to  conduct  their  operations smoothly  but note very organization can afford the right human capital. Human re-source is a very vital asset to an organization because it helps an organization achieve its competitive edge against its competition  in the same  industry.

                        For this reason, employee performance is very important to the twenty first century organizations for this will enable them compete favorably against the changing environment with other organizations. Robin (1998), as cited by (M’Mbui, 2011) indicates that performance  may  be  influenced by a number of factors which include; individual personality, the values instilled in them, attitudes and competence of an individual which is a mixture of how they perceive things and their motivation. However, it was also indicated that biographical characteristics like their age, their sex, status of  marriage and seniority level could not really give exact and reproductive  facts of  links to improve employee accomplishments and their job satisfaction. For one to get to know how well or badly they may have performed, a performance management tool has to be used to assess them. There are various tools that could be used in measuring success in an organization according to Guck (2013).

                        The first tool is the 360 -degree feedback that is used on managers by the people that work with them on a day-to-day basis.

                        Secondly, the balanced score-card may be used which entails a combination of quantifiable information such as sales quotas and budget position. 

                        Another tool  that  can be  used  is  management  by  objectives  where  managers  come  up  with  goals  for  the  employees  then  they  get  to  be  measured  at  the  end  of  a  period  to  see  whether  these  goals have  been  attained.  Self-evaluation  is  a  tool  used by  an  individual  to  measure  their  own performance in comparison with that of their superior (Gunk, 2013).

                         Organizations  are  facing  increased  competition  due  to  globalization,  and  external  environmental factors. Each and every organization has the responsibility to enhance the performance  of  their  employees because  of  its  importance  in  achieving  optimize  goals (Nassazi, 2013).

                         The effective management of your employees’ performance should: con-tribute  to  business success  by  ensuring  that  individual  efforts  are  linked  to  business  objectives;  improve  the  motivation  and  performance of  staff  by  giving  them  positive  feed-back  and  by  providing  them  with  opportunities  for training  and  development;  provide  a basis for linking rewards to performance; give the company more information about individuals  and  their  needs (Cushway,  2015). A job performance  that is  good  gives  an  individual an assurance of security hence they do not hop from one  job to another  in search of a new position.

                         This happens when their managers are able to understand their expectations and professional goals, as well  as giving them  feedback  from time to time  just to make sure that they are at their best. All in all, good job performance enhances the reputation  of  an  employee  hence  enhancing  them  in  developing  their  careers(McQuerrey, 2014).

1.2 Statement of the Problem

                         Performance management helps in ensuring that its workers contribute towards the objectives,  goals  and  mission  of  the  organization,  setting  employee  expectations  motivating them  to  work  hard.  By  improving  the  performance  of  an  employee,  the  overall  performance  of  an  organization  is  automatically  improved (Ying,  2012). An  effective  performance management system should have the capability to enhance success of an organization as well as ensuring that the employees are also well motivated (Cushway, 2015).

                         The organization without a doubt has surely survived through the tough economic  times  by  trying  to re-invent  itself  through  adopting  the  new  technologies  but still, the organization  is  still  running  on  debts  and  recently  it  announced  that  it  was  going  to  re-trench the older generation and give room for younger and fresher blood that will come in to enhance  the  performance  of  the  organization. It is quite  evident  that  updated  equipment, or new technologies or pumping in more money into projects by the government is not  enough to  enhance  productivity of an organization nor  maximize  profits. Better performance can only be achieved when the employees use their unique wits to enhance the productivity of the organization.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of the study is to examine the factors that affect employee performance in an organization. Specifically the objectives of this study are:

1.       To examine the effect of employee motivation on employee performance in an organization.

2.       To examine the effect of job design on employee performance in an organization.

3.       To examine the effect of working conditions on employee performance in an organizations.

1.4 Significance of the Study

                         This study would be of great benefit to Human Resource practices in this area of employee performance as it is one that can guide on how to effectively undertake this task by using methods and techniques that have been tried and tested by other practitioners across the world and also in creating new Human Resource policies and procedures that can be used by in this changing and competitive environment.

                         The findings of this study could be very useful to the management of organization, in that, the management will be able to identify the reason behind the poor performance of the employees and seek to improve on them as they strive to attain organizational objectives.

          Scholars  that  may  intent  to  conduct  a  study  on  the  same  topic may  find  this  study  important,  in  that  the  information  herein  may  be  used  as  a  form  of  literature  so  as  to  help them comprehend further on this topic.

                         Trade unions could immensely benefit from this research as well. The findings of this research would help in the restructure of the objectives set by these unions regarding workers and also enable them to understand the plight of workers and in return, they will be able to fight for them accordingly.

1.5     Research Questions

          For the objectives above, the research questions would be as follows:

1. To what extent does the effect of employee motivation influence employee                     performance in an organization?

2.       To what extent does the effect of job design enhance employee performance in an organization?

3.       To what extent does the effect of working conditions enhance employee performance in an organizations?

1.6  Research Hypotheses

          H01: There is no significant relationship between the effects of employee motivation on employee performance in an organization.

          H02: There is no significant relationship between the effects of job design on employee performance in an organization?

          H03: There is no significant relationship between the factors effecting of employee performance in an organization.

1.7 Scope of the Study or Delimitation of the Study

                         The study seek to find out the factors that affect employee performance in an organization. Only office managers and Top level managers in the organization will be used in the study. The study was limited to selected private organizations.