Influence of Stress Management Skills on Employee Performance of Police Service in Kenya

Abstract

Employees coping with work-related stress, lack of creativity, as well as inspiration result in poor organizational performance. Very strong opinions suggest that Police Officers’ (POs) welfare is insufficient. Most of the police officers who were interviewed observed that they were not sufficiently remunerated for their services. The POs also do not have enough insurance covering their hazardous situations they continually encounter as they reinforce law and order. According to the Kenya police service satisfaction and needs analysis report of 2016, the Police Officers live under very poor conditions which hamper their job performance. The mentioned aspects, lower the level of Emotional Intelligence in the Police Service since they spend much time thinking about their problems other than looking for solutions. Bungoma County though has well committed police officers; their service delivery has been hampered by factors linked to emotional intelligence among these disciplined service providers. The study sought to investigate the influence of stress management skills on employee performance of police service in Kenya. The study was anchored on the Systemic Stress, Selye's Theory, Trait Model and Mixed Model. The research design adopted by the study was descriptive design. The target population consisted of 1,517 police officers in Bungoma County. Purposive, simple random and stratified sampling techniques were used to obtain a sample of 317 respondents from the population of 1,517 police officers. A questionnaire was used as the data collection instrument. This study employed the Cronbach alpha coefficient as an indicator of test instrument reliability, at a threshold of 0.7 and beyond. The data was analyzed and interpreted primarily using descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS version 22. The results illustrated a positive, linear and significant association between stress management skills and performance of Police Officers in Bungoma County. It was concluded that stress management skills in police service was a significant factor in relation to employee performance.

Key Words: Stress Management Skills, Employee Performance, Police Service, Kenya