Role of high performance work practices on organizational performance. A survey of listed state corporations in the Nairobi stock exchange in Kenya.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of High performance work practices on organizational performance on listed state corporations in Kenya. The study was guided by selective hiring, employee participation and involvement, employee performance appraisal, training and development and job security as independent variables and organizational performance as the dependent variable. The study also determined the significance of moderating effect of organization commitment on high performance work practices (HPWP) on organizational performance. The study population was all the 5866 employees of the three state corporations trading with NSE. A sample of 361 respondents was used. Questionnaires were distributed randomly to respondents within each company. A pilot test was conducted to detect weaknesses in design and instrumentation. Cronbach’s alpha was used to test for internal reliability of each variable used in the study. The study employed a descriptive survey research design targeting the employees of the state corporations trading on Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE). Data was collected using questionnaires and analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages. Secondary data also collected from library resources, journal articles and other published research papers mainly from online journals. The study was carried on state corporations trading with NSE to establish the role high performance work practices have on organization performance in Kenya. The findings of the study showed that selective hiring, employee participation and involvement, employee performance appraisal, training and development and job security significantly influenced organizational performance. It can therefore be concluded that the adoption of high performance work practices by State Corporations in Kenya influence organizational performance. The results also showed that organizational commitment moderates the relationship between HPWPs and organizational performance. Conclusions from the results indicated that affective commitment and normative commitment moderate the relationship between selective hiring and organizational performance. Affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative commitment moderated the relationship between employee participation, performance appraisal, training and development, job security and organizational performance. The study recommended that chief executives incorporate the HPWPs in their firms and all state corporations should inject HPWPs in their organizations as a matter of policy.