Effects of Alcohol Abuse on Employee Performance and Absenteeism in Kenya Ports Authority
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Date
2016Author
Konchellah, Ruth M
Type
ThesisLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The World Health Organization(WHO) defineS a drug as any chemical substance which
when taken into the body can affect one or more of the body‟s functions. Alcohol, a
legalized drug, is among the substances currently abused in the world. According to
the World drug report (2013), alcohol abuse is recognized as a global threat with
serious effects on people‟s health, security, socio-economic status and cultural welfare.
This study sought to establish the effect of alcohol abuse on employee performance
and absenteeism at the Kenya Ports Authority. The main variables of the study
included extent of abuse, staff productivity, absenteeism, and alcohol abuse
prevention practices and employee improvement programs. To achieve its objective,
the study used questionnaires and interview guides. The study targeted staff based at
the Inland Container depot Nairobi. Sampling method was used to obtain 60
respondents. Simple stratified random sampling was used to select the sample elements.
The study absorbed a descriptive research design. The study collected both
quantitative and qualitative data and analyzed it through SPSS and content analysis
respectively. The findings were presented using frequency tables. The study revealed
and concluded that alcohol abuse is not so major a challenge at KPA. Factors such as
work related stress, availability of extra monies and influence from peers are among
the major contributors towards alcohol abusing habit; affects the productivity of the
related employees; increases employee absenteeism and proneness to accidents at the
workplace; there exists a varied degree of relationships between alcohol abuse and
employee performance, absenteeism, workplace accidents, alcohol abuse prevention
practices and employee improvement programs. It was also evident that effective alcohol
abuse prevention practices and employee improvement programs impact employees
against alcohol abuse. The study however recommended that KPA should adopt policies
and other alcohol abuse control tools in order to curb the problem of alcohol misuse.
Effective employee improvement programmes should also be put in place to facilitate the
employees in beating the vice while the system of measuring the employee performance
should also be enhanced as this supports the reduction of the alcohol abuse at the
workplace.
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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