CHANGE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AND EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE IN KAKAMEGA COUNTY, KENYA

Change is what brings forth new ideas, solutions and growth. It’s about breaking free from our circle of comfort in order to start seeing alternative routes offered to our organizations to progress in the right direction. It’s about embracing business transformation, making an organisation more agile, ready to adapt, and taking advantage of the latest innovations to boost competitiveness. County governments in Kenya have become a point interest especially in service delivery at the grassroots. To achieve this mandate, county managers introduce changes that range from technological, organizational, cultural or even leadership changes engaging different change management practices. The County Government of Kakamega like all other organizations while strategically vouching for success has embraced change of some sort over the years. The changes have had effect on both the employees and organization at large based on the assorted change management strategies used. It is with this onslaught that this study moved to bring out the effect of Change management practices on employee performance with specific objectives of determining the effect of organizational structure change management strategies on employee performance in the County Government of Kakamega; establishing the influence of technological change management strategies on employee performance in the County Government of Kakamega; investigating the influence of leadership change management strategies on the employee performancein the County Government of Kakamega; examining the effect of Culture change management strategieson Employee performance in the County Government of Kakamegaand examining the moderating influence of organizational factors on the relationship between change management practices and employee performance in the County Government of Kakamega. The study targeted 160 employees of which 154 respondents were drawn from senior managers in the 11 ministries. Descriptive research design was used for the research with data obtained through questionnaires and analyzed using statistical software SPSS and the results presented in form of tables, graphs and charts. Results indicated 50.6% of changes in employee performance could be attributed to organization structure (r2=0.506); 52.9% of the changes in employee performance were attributed to organization culture (r2=0.529); 31.2% of the changes in employee performance was attributed to technology (r2=0.312); 31.6% of the changes in employee performance can be attributed to changes in leadership (r2=0.316). It was therefore concluded that changes in the organizational structure have a significant effect on employee performance in the County Government of Kakamega, that technological changes have a significant effect on employee performancein the County Government of Kakamega; Leadership changes have a significant effect on employee performance in Kakamega County Government;that Organizational culture changes have a significant effect on employee performance in the County Government of Kakamegaand that there was a negative but significant moderating effect of organizational factors on the relationship between change management practices and employee performance of the County Government of Kakamega.The study then recommends full adoption of the change management practices so as to enhance service delivery, improved employee performance and enhanced operation.