| dc.description.abstract | Previous studies suggest that strategic human resource management practices are
beneficial to firm performance. Different from most previous studies conducted in a
western context, this study examined the data of banks in Kenya, and thus examined a
very different cultural and institutional environment.
A census study was carried out for all the 42 banks in Kenya. However, 32 out of the 42
banks responded resulting into a response rate of 76%. The findings revealed that most of
the banks had more than 150 employees. The extent of information flow between human
resource department and other departments in the organization was great at 43%. The
extent to which the human resource department was treated as a specialized function was
also great at 43%.
The findings of the study also revealed that strategic human management practices in the
key functions of recruitment, training and development, training effectiveness /
evaluation, performance - based compensation; flexible benefits, employee relations,
consultative performance appraisal and human resource planning were practiced in all the
banks under study. However, the extent of practice varied amongst the banks.
The banks' organization performance in terms of quality of products, services or
programmes, development of new products," services or programmes, ability to attract
essential employees, ability to retain essential employees, satisfaction of customers or
clients and relationship among employees in general in comparison to other
organization's in the same business was generally above industry average. The banks'
market performance in terms of profitability, market share, capital level, customer level
and total deposits in general in comparison with other organization's in the same business
was generally above industry average.
A correlation analysis was carried out to establish the relationship between strategic
human resource management practices and organization performance using Pearson
v
product moment correlation technique. The results revealed that there was a positive
relationship between strategic human resource management practices and organization
performance as the Pearson product moment correlation statistic figure was found to be (r
= 0.475, P<O.OOl, n=32). A similar correlation analysis was carried out to establish the
relationship between strategic human resource management and market performance. The
results revealed a positive and strong relationship of (r = 0.629, P<O.OOl, n = 32). The
findings clearly established that there exists a positive relationship between strategic
human resource management practices and firm performance | en |
