Effect Of Work Environment On Performance Of Large Manufacturing Firms In Nairobi County, Kenya

Abstract

The general objective of the study was to establish the influence of work environmental on the performance of manufacturing firms in Nairobi County, Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to: - identify influence of physical work environment, employee relations and empowerment on performance among manufacturing firms. The study was based on three theories which are namely; resource based view theory, competence based view theory and contingency theory. A descriptive cross sectional research design was used to solve this research problem. The target population comprised of all the 230 large-scale manufacturing companies in the city of Nairobi, Kenya. The study employed both stratified and simple random sampling approaches. Stratified random sampling was employed to split the heterogeneous population into homogenous groups so that the samples were picked from each stratum. The sample size was 45 respondents. Structured questionnaires were used to collect primary data using the Likert Scale. The primary data collected using questionnaires was coded and entered into SPSS. The analysis comprised of both descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and percentages was used to analyze the descriptive elements of the study. Correlations and regression analysis was also calculated to draw inferences to the entire population. From the findings the study concluded that work environment at manufacturing firms’ influences the firms’ performance. The study also concluded that the relationship between work environment and performance of manufacturing firms is positive and significant. The specific aspects of work environment that influence the performance include physical environment, employee relations and empowerment. In relation to the findings the study recommends that manufacturing firms in Kenya ought to revise their human resource policies which govern the employees’ relations. This would help to increase the benefits reaped from existence of good human resource policies. The study also recommends that manufacturing firms should look forwards to make the physical environment better through acquisition of ergonometric furniture which takes into consideration the health of employees’ as it impacts on employee productivity directly and thus result to improved performance.