Effect of Leave Administration on Employee Performance in Public Universities in Kenya

Abstract

Work-life Balance allows employees greater plasticity in their work therefore enhancing balance between work and the responsibilities outside their work stations. Leave Administration involves how paid absence is managed after a period of service with a particular employer such as annual, sick and compassionate leave .Leave days allow the workers to relieve themselves from work related issues and focus more on family matters. When leave is granted, it stimulates motivation hence ensures performance and productivity among workers. Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory, also known as the motivation-hygiene theory, guided this research. The study adopted descriptive research design because it describes the state of affairs, as it exists at present in the study. The study adopted disproportionate stratified sampling technique since it is a probabilistic sampling technique which is distinguished by its two-steps procedure. The study targeted 17,221 employees in the 7 public universities in Kenya established under the old constitution and chartered under individual Act of parliament. The sample size was 376 respondents which comprised of academic and non-academic staff. Primary data was collected using a structured questionnaire which was dropped to respondents and collected later. The quantitative analysis technique was used for analyzing data collected from the respondents. Descriptive summary measures specifically frequencies, percentages, means and standard errors were used to describe profiles of the Universities and respondents. Correlation was used to establish the relationship between the research variables. Hypotheses was tested using t-test while the overall significance of the model was tested using F-test at 5% level of significance. The findings were presented by use of tables and figures. Cronbach Alpha coefficient of 0.7 was used to test the reliability of research instruments. The study findings indicated that leave administration has an effect on employee performance in public Universities in Kenya. The study concluded that leave administration has a statistically significant effect on employee’s performance in that 70.1 % of the variations in employee performance can be explained by the independent variable leave administration while 29.9% of variations in employee performance are explained by random error or other factors. Further the study results indicate that leave administration should be effective so as to enable employees to meet their expectations and ultimately influences university’s performance. Therefore, a lack of leave administration may lead to decreased employee service delivery, efficiency, and effectiveness, which negatively affects the university’s performance. The study recommends that universities should sustain and continually improve on their leave administration by instituting a leave policy to ensure consistent leave administration that is in accordance with the existing laws.