Relationship between workplace changes and employee morale in private Universities in Western Kenya

Abstract

According to Kariuki, N. & Makori, M., (2015), a survey was conducted in Presbyterian University of East Africa (PUEA) by the Human Resource Office in 2014 and revealed that up to 50% of Kenyan Private Universities’ work force merely show up at work to do what is expected of them. The research found that 47% of employees visited and ended up spending the majority of their time on social websites during work time. Therefore, employee turnover was recorded at 43%. The main cause of these scenarios is not known. Literature has given various suggestions that some workplace changes in private universities relate with technology, communication methods, transfer of employees, work goals, marketing and operational costs. However, it is not known whether these changes have a significant relationship with low employee morale in private universities in Kenya. This study therefore paid particular attention to the relationship between workplace changes and employee morale in private universities in western Kenya region. In specific, the study sought to determine how technological changes, transfer of employees, change in communication processes and change in work goals relate to employee morale in private universities in western Kenya region. The study's conclusions may be very helpful to numerous parties involved in Kenya's private universities. This study was anchored on Lewin’s theory of Change Management, Job Characteristics model and Goal Setting theory. This study employed correlational research design. The target population was 1440 faculty and staff members of four selected Universities. Techniques of stratified random sampling were used in the study. The sample consisted of 313 workers from various departments. Respondents were given questionnaires to complete in order to collect data. The items on the questionnaire were developed using items from literature reviews. Excel and SPSS tools were used in the data analysis. Frequency tables and charts were used to present the data. Conclusions and suggestions were drawn from the results. A pilot study with ten was carried out in Uzima University to determine the validity of the items in the research instruments. The ten respondents were not examined in the real exercise. The findings revealed that technological changes had a positive relationship (β=.707, p<.05) and accounted for significant variance (50.0%) in employee morale (R2=.500, p<.05), employee transfer had a negative relationship (β=-.541,p<.05) and accounted for 29.3% variance in employee morale (R2=.293, p<.05), change in communication had a negative relationship (β=-.483, p<.05) and accounted for 23.0% significant variance in employee morale (R2=.230, p<.05) and finally change in work goals had a negative relationship (β=-.678, p<.05) and accounted for 46.0% variance in employee morale (R2=.460, p<.05). It was concluded that workplace changes has a significant relationship with employee morale. The study recommended that private universities prepare their employees in advance before transfer, change in communication and change in goals.