Human Resource Management Practices of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa and Organization’s Performance (The Case of PCEA St. Andrews, Nairobi Kenya)

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the human resource management practices and how they are driving the performance of the church. The study was guided by the following specific objectives: to analyze factors influencing the implementation of Human Resource Management practices in the Presbyterian Church of East Africa; to explore whether the business practices applied in commercial organizations can be adopted in a nonprofit organization such as the Presbyterian Church of East Africa; and to evaluate how Human Resource Management practices under study are influencing the performance of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa. For purposes of the study, descriptive survey design was employed. The target population comprised of the elders, deacons, retired elders Church ministers and employees of Presbyterian Church of East Africa St Andrews. Non probability methods were used to arrive at a representative sample to participate in the study. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the background information. Measures of central tendencies and dispersions presented the expected scores or measures from groups of scores in the study. Measures of variability, such as standard deviation, informed about the distribution of scores around the mean of the distribution. Frequency distributions show a record of the number of times a score or record appears. Findings of the study show that Human Resource Management practices in the Presbyterian Church of East Africa St Andrews are influenced by the nature of the organization or the organizational culture. The voluntary aspect of the Church has directed other factors of motivation while because the church leaders (deacons and elders) are not employees they see no reason why they should be supervised in terms of the development of performance measures. The findings also show that temporal matters of the Church calls for the Presbyterian Church of East Africa St Andrews to consider a business approach. The Presbyterian Church of East Africa just like the general Church has to address the multitude of ethical dilemmas, which fall on the temporal matters wing of the Presbyterian Church of East Africa St Andrews Church structure. Further, the findings show that the Human Resource Management practices of the leaders and administrative staff are contributing to church performance.

Keywords: Human Resource Management Practices, Presbyterian Church of East Africa, Clergy, Elders, Deacons, Group leaders.