INFLUENCE OF FORMAL GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES ON EMPLOYEE RETENTION IN KENYA’S DEVOLVED UNITS: A CASE STUDY OF KISUMU COUNTY

Abstract

Retaining talented employees has become one of the major priorities of organizations and the key differentiator for human capital management. Handling of employee grievances may have a bearing on employee retention in county governments. The objective of the study was to assess the influence of formal grievance handling practises on employee retention in devolved units in Kenya. The study was pegged on the theory of dispute resolution, while the research design was correlation research design. This study was limited to Kisumu County Government and was done between March and April 2019. The target population of the study was 2,087 employees of Kisumu County government from which a sample of 125 was involved. The selection of the respondents was done through purposive sampling so that only those cases or respondents who had grievances and had made attempts to resolve them through the available mechanisms were considered. The researcher used a closed ended questionnaire as the data collection instrument since the research was largely quantitative. Validity of the research instrument was done through a pilot test at Homa Bay County. In order to establish the reliability of the instrument, the questionnaire with Cronbach Alpha of 0.7 and above was adopted. Data analyzed through the use of descriptive statistics through use of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The regression analysis and ANOVA was used to test the influence of formal grievance handling procedures on employee retention. From the analysis most studies showed empirical evidence that there is significant influence of formal grievance handling practices on employee retention in devolved units. It was concluded that efficient grievance handling enhance more employee retention in Kisumu county and the study highly recommended the supervisors to be organizing meetings to settle the disputes before they spill over to bigger issues, as direct resolution has a significant influence on employee retention. Key Words: Grievance Handling, Employee Retention, Kisumu County CITATION: Ochieng, L. A., & Juma, D. (2019). Influence of formal grievance procedures on employee retention in Kenya’s devolved units: A case study of Kisumu County. The Strategic Journal of Business & Change Management, 6 (2), 2272 – 2285.