Factors Affecting Women Career Advancement in the Banking Industry in Kenya (A Case of Kenya Commercial Bank Branches in Nairobi County, Kenya)

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the factors affecting women career advancement in Kenya Commercial Bank. The study was guided by the following specific objectives: to assess the extent to which age affects women’s career advancement in the banking sector in Kenya; to evaluate the extent to which gender affects women's career advancement in the banking sector in Kenya; to examine the extent to which education affects women’s career advancement in the banking sector in Kenya; and to investigate the extent to which core-self evaluation affects women’s career advancement in the banking sector in Kenya. to determine the extent to which age affects women’s career advancement in the banking sector in Kenya; to establish the extent to which gender affects women's career advancement in the banking sector in Kenya.; and to determine the extent to which education affects women’s career advancement in the banking sector in Kenya; and to establish the extent to which core-self evaluation affects women’s career advancement in the banking sector in Kenya.Methods: The study focused on selected branches of Kenya Commercial Bank branches located in Nairobi region, whose number stood at 19 as at June 2013 (Kenya Commercial Bank, June 2013). There were two respondents from each of the bank branches, the branch manager and another senior bank official, of the opposite sex from the branch manager. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data from the respondents. Computation of frequencies in tables, charts and bar graphs were used in data presentation. In addition, the researcher used standard deviations and mean scores to present information pertaining to the study objectives. Results: The findings of the study indicate that  majority of the respondents either “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that individual factors: age; gender issues; individual’s skills, tenure, hard work, reputation and performance and affect women’s career advancement; and women’s lack of self-confidence and their tendency to be more self-critical than men hinder their career advancement in the banking sector in Kenya. The findings also show that the ranking of the factors affecting women’s career advancement in the banking sector, show as follows: “Individual’s age” was first ranked, “women’s lack of self-confidence and their tendency to be more self-critical than men hinder their career advancement” was second ranked, “Individual’s level of education” was third ranked, “The gender issue” was fourth ranked, and the least ranked was “Individual’s skills, tenure, hard work, reputation and performance”.

Keywords: Bank, Career Development, Core-self evaluation, Individual factors, Organizational factors, Social factors.