Effect of Perceived Workplace Environment on Employee Performance at Communication Authority of Kenya

Abstract

Workplace environment constitutes of several and distinguishable variables besides the intrinsic aspects of work that influences employees‟ performance at a given point in time. An enabling workplace environment will lead to improved employee performance. The main objective of this study was to determine the effect of perceived workplace environment on the performance of employees at CA by soliciting responses from 120 of its employees selected through stratified sampling method and drawn from senior management levels, mid-levels and non-managerial levels. This study made use of primary data collected via use of semi-structured questionnaire, the data collected then descriptively analyzed into frequencies, mean scores, standard deviation and percentages. Findings from this study revealed Management and Leadership Styles as having the strongest relationship on the performance of employees at the Communication Authority of Kenya followed by Physical Workplace environment which comprises of Furniture Comfort, Noise-free and Office space designs one largely impacting on their performance. The three other workplace environment variables under consideration in this study namely Organizational Culture, Teamwork and Work Life Balance equally had a positive relation with employee performance with WLB deemed to least impact on employee performance at CA. The study highly recommends that CA Management looks into its Organizational Culture and consider undertaking a robust culture change initiative alongside other activities such as team building to boost teamwork and trust among its employees so as to enhance employee performance levels. The study recommends too that the immediate working conditions of employees such as office space and comfort of workplace furniture be enhanced to boost performance of employees. Additionally, Views of the employees should be sought and considered in decision making besides devolving powers to the lowest units in the organization. Lastly, CA to consider establishing day care centers for the nursing mothers at their workplace for this will go a long way in providing psychological satisfaction to nursing mothers hence motivate them to perform better. The main limitation of this study was time available for the researcher to carry out the study hence the researcher recommends further studies across other state-owned entities in Kenya to enable corroboration of the findings arrived in this study and their applicability to other entities.