Managing the employment relationship through employee participation : a case of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya

Abstract

The Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) is a public university with about 1,500 employees in various cadres but mainly categorized into academic and non - academic staff. This research report indicates how JKUAT can enhance its employment relationship by nurturing participative employee relations through involving employees in management decisions.

The introduction of performance contracts in public institutions demands that emphasis should be placed on greater involvement of employees in matters affecting their work, there is no evidence that this happens in JKUAT. JKUAT has three trade unions recognized by its management and this exerts some pressure on management to effectively tackle employee issues given the adversarial nature of unions hence the need to pay more attention on employee participation rather than collective bargaining. In addition as an institution of higher learning most of JKUAT employees are literate, therefore less amenable to a management style of control and commands as the employees would like to have a say in matter that affect their employment. This study was exploratory in design and stratified random sampling procedure was used to determine the sample units, which were about 15% of the JKUAT employee population. A structured questionnaire was administered for data collection. The data collected was mainly quantitative in nature and the data analysis involved quantitative techniques. This research indicates that the JKUAT employees consider employee participation to be important as it would result into greater employee commitment and that all employees should be able to participate regardless of the education level, seniority and job title. The employee participation activity considered to be most important was team/self management and that employees should be involved in the actual decision making together with management. Direct participation was most preferred as opposed to indirect participation and financial participation and the employees want to be involved in decisions relating to both their individual work as well as departmental work. It was also discovered that all the parties to the employment relationship stand to gain from the employee participation initiative and that the university management should be responsible for ensuring successful introduction and implementation of the employee participation activities. The challenges to employee participation were identified, solutions recommended and it was suggested that employee participation in JKUAT should be made policy. This indicates that employee participation should be encouraged not only for management transparency but also for industrial harmony and to promote employee creativity and innovation. The JKUAT employees should be empowered to be able to effectively participate in decision making at the task and departmental levels, at the same time, management should ensure that whenever possible, employees should be consulted and their opinions sought before decisions are made. The various employee participation activities should be introduced and reinforced when appropriate and that all parties to the employment relationship in JKUAT should view employee participation as beneficial to all of them and to JKUAT as a whole. Consequently a policy document on employee participation should be developed with the involvement of the relevant stakeholders especially the parties to the employment relationship.