The Management Concerns Affecting Implementation of Performance Appraisal System in Government Departments in Kenya

Abstract

ABSTRACT Its is a known fact that the Kenyan economy was growing at rate of less than 1 % before December 2002, due to declining efficiency, effectiveness and productivity in delivery of service by the public sector. It's for this reason, the NARC government introduced several strategies to revive the economy among them poverty eradication strategy 2002 to 2003, economic recovery strategy (ERS) which contributed to the economic growth of almost 7% in 2007. This growth rate has been attributed to the government commitment to create a culture of performance oriented attitude among the public sector through performance contracting strategy leading to improved efficiency and effectiveness. The performance contracting is evaluated through performance appraisal system and it is against this background that this research report on the findings of evaluation of the strategic management concerns affecting the implementation of performance appraisal system at district level by the civil servants. The report is on research conducted in Tigania District targeting the twenty five heads of departments and three employees from each of the twenty five ministries in the district. The study used descriptive research design; in particular survey research was used where a total of eighty nine respondents participated. The researcher used probability sampling method where random sampling was used to get the three employees who participate from each ministry. In addition, purposive method was used to sample the twenty five heads of the department because of their strategic role they play in evaluation of employees under them and therefore determining the success of performance appraisal system. The research used questionnaires to collect data from the sampled population; the data was then summarized into frequency tables, and finally analyzed using descriptive analysis, regression and non-parametric correlations. The research found out that the structure, culture personal skills reward system and proper change management variables positively influences performance appraisal system implementation This research recommends that the government should come up with policies that will emphasize continuous training of its workers and a scheme of service that encourage creativity, career growth and a reward system that is satisfactory to performing employees.