Effect of Flexible Work Practices on Employee Performance in Electricity Generating Companies in Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to establish the effect of flexible work practices on employee performance in electricity generating companies in Kenya. The specific objective of the study was to determine the influence of job flexibility, job sharing, telecommuting and compressed work weeks on employee performance in electricity generating companies in Kenya. A descriptive research design was used in this study. This design was considered adequate because it allow the use of various research techniques to answers the why, how, what and when question about a certain phenomenon. The population of interest in this study were 510 employees working in various departments at Electricity generating firm head offices in Nairobi. The study applied Fisher formula in determine the sample size which was 219 respondents. Therefore the study sample size was 219 employees which were obtained from a population of 510. The study adopted stratified, simple random sampling techniques. The stratified was adopted to ensure that there was equal representation in terms of various departments while the simple random was used to ensure that all member of the population had equal chance of being selected in the sample. This study used primary data that was gathered using a structured questionnaire. The study results show job flexibility, job sharing and telecommuting had a significant and positive effect employee performance in electricity generating companies in Kenya. The effect of compressed work week was found to be insignificant. The study concluded that many organisations are adopting flexible work practices to enhance work life balance which lead to high employee performance. The study recommends that management of organisations that seek to improve employees’ performance should considered adoption flexible work practices which helps employees in achieving equilibrium between work commitments and personal commitments which improves employees’ performance.

Keywords: Job Flexibility, Job Sharing, Telecommuting, Compressed Work Weeks