Social Capital and Employee Promotion at the Ministry of Medical Services, Malindi District

Abstract

Little has been done about social capital and its impact in promotions in Kenya. The primary purpose of this research project was to establish whether there is a relationship between social capital and employee promotion in the ministry of medical services. The population target was all the people holding a management responsibility at all levels of all kinds of employees working with the ministry of medical services in the ministry of medical services.

To realize the purpose of this study, a survey was done to collect primary data by use of structured questionnaires. Drop and pick method was used to collect the questionnaires that caused 87.5% success rate of the data collection. 40 questionnaires were issued and only 5 were not returned. The rest (35 ofthem) were responded to and returned.

The relationship between social capital and employee promotion was found over 75%. This is by getting an average of the respondents who indicated that they felt like social factors influence promotions. The research further indicates that majority of the respondents were not certain on promotion techniques used to decide on a particular candidate.

What came out clearly is the fact that the vacancies that arise are not formally communicate to majority of the people who might want 0 rise to such positions. Informal communication was common. Also it emerged clearly that the ministry still uses traditional forms of communication with substantial use of mobile phone technology.

That paves way for social capital to play its role of networking. It also emerged that aspects of social capital are not openly encouraged in the ministry but they influence what people do and whom they interact with. It is recommended that greater emphasis need to be put on open communication if fair promotions have to be done without the influence of social capital.