Effect of Employee Motivation Strategies on Organizational Performance: A Case of Electricity Generating and Distribution Firms in Kenya

Abstract

With increasing globalization and greater competitive pressures facing organizations across the globe, companies have paid greater attention to the Human Resource function. Consequently, Motivation as a key aspect of HR has gained prominence in both the academic field and industry. Quite often the link between employee motivation and performance seems to be quite obvious.  However, the relationship between the two is a lot more complex if not handled in a fair and goal oriented manner. This study seeks to find out the effect of motivation strategies on organizational performance in electricity generating firms in the Energy sector.  The study was guided by  three specific objectives, namely: to  determine the effect of Reward and recognition on organizational performance, to determine the effect of training and development on organizational performance in Electricity generating firms in the energy sector and to determine the effect of employee benefits on organizational performance in electricity generating firms. Both theoretical and empirical literature was used looking at various past motivational theories and studies carried out.  The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. With a target population of four electricity generating and distribution firms based in Nairobi. Comprising of management level, middle level and the lower level in the organizations. The study used frequency tables, charts, percentages and graphical illustration to provide information on key variables as well as the means and standard deviations for the responses on the effect of motivation on organizational performance questionnaires.  Upon collecting data from the said questionnaires, careful analysis was done both manually and by utilizing SPSS version 21 software. the study concludes that electricity generating and distribution firms lacked clear policies governing  training and development, the electricity distribution firms had failed to  match their  reward and recognition benefits with current economic status and that there lacked an adequate employee benefits package  which all had a negative effect on organizational performance in electricity generating and distribution firms.

Keywords: Motivation and Organizational Performance