Perceived relationship between organizational culture and motivation of paralegal staff at the Kenya judiciary

Abstract

The Kenyan Judiciary’s mandate is to administer justice expeditiously to all. Over the years, the Judiciary has experienced massive decline in public confidence due to the manner in which it executes its core mandate. The Constitution of Kenya 2010 hails a new beginning for most institutions with a call to reform. For the Judiciary, it was an urgent call to reform that saw the coming in of the new leadership who introduced different ways of doing things. This study examined the perceived relationship between the current organizational culture and employee motivation in the judiciary especially with the coming in of a new leadership in the judiciary, two years after promulgation of the new Constitution. This study targeted all the paralegal staff at the Kenya Judiciary. The researcher adopted the descriptive census survey. Study employed stratified sampling approach which involves dividing the population into homogeneous subgroups; and the sample size was 87 out of a population of 118. The objective was to establish employee perceived relationship between organizational culture and employee motivation. Data collected was primary data; mainly quantitative in nature. The researcher structured closed and open-ended questionnaires which were personally administered. Quantitative data analysis was by use of descriptive statistics. To measure the relationship between organizational culture and employee motivation, a Pearson Correlation was used. All the three levels of management from the paralegal staff were covered with a high response rate obtained from the middle level who constitute the majority paralegal staff in the institution. The majority of paralegal staff perceived the judiciary to be a results oriented institution highlighted by a majority response who agreed that the dominant characteristics in the judiciary constituted performance focussed, efficiency and a leadership which is no-nonsense and aggressive, and whose main aim was performance and competitive market leadership as opposed to human development. Paralegal staff perceived the judiciary to be a structured and controlled place characterized by formal rules and policies. They perceived the institution as doing little or nothing at all in promoting their development. A lack of motivation may be evident from the fact that majority of paralegal staff disagreed that their jobs offered them a chance to develop personally; or allowed them to make decisions affecting their jobs and disagreed that their jobs allowed them to grow. Study findings therefore, reveal a market culture with a mix of hierarchy as prevailing in the Judiciary. The result shows that some dimensions of organizational culture have a positive significant relationship with the paralegal staff motivation. A positive correlation between organizational culture and staff motivation; is no non-sense aggressive, result oriented, level of efficiency, systems supported security of employment stability and conformity, formal rules and practice, pay and my job allows me work in a team 0.637, 0.530, 0.485, 0.482,0.324, 0.040, and 0.064 in that order. The positive relationship indicates that there is a correlation between organizational culture and motivation of paralegal staff at the Kenya Judiciary. Some of the recommendations include staff welfare and staff recognition as well as implementation of a well designed training programme.