Flexible Working Arrangements On Employee Performance In Kericho County Referral Hospital, Kenya

ABSTRACT

Despite availability of flexible working arrangements in the public hospitals to enhance the productivity of the health care personnel, performance in most public hospitals remains wanting. Furthermore, the extent to which flexible work arrangements relates to employee productivity, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and turnover of health personnel and thus performance remain unclear in public hospitals. The purpose of the research project was to carry out research on flexible working patterns on employee performance in Kericho county referral hospital in Kericho County. The research examined the following objectives; to assess the effects of part time working, to investigate the effects of work shift, to determine the effects of flexi time and to establish the effects of temporary contracts on employee performance. The findings of the study would lead to equipping and improvement of the management of referral hospital regarding knowledge and skills on how to come up with flexible working for employee performance. The study was guided by Vroom’s Expectancy Theory. The study adopted descriptive research design. The target population was stratified into top management, doctors, clinical officers, nurses and subordinates consisting of 111 employees of Kericho County Referral Hospital. A sample of 104 staff of Kericho referral hospital was selected using stratified sample techniques and from each strata simple random sampling was used. The data was collected using closed and open ended questionnaire where validity of the research instrument was determined by peer’s expert judgment and by researcher’s supervisor and piloting. The reliability of the questionnaire was established by Cronbach Alpha formula. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics with the aid of statistical package of social sciences (SPSS), the results were presented using tables and charts. The finding indicated that flexi working strategies was significant to performance of employees in an organization. It was noted that the performance contributed by flexi working methods were 22.9% while other factors which was not measured was 77.1%. Temporary contract, work shift and part time working were positive significant predictors while flexi time positive but not significant to performance. The study recommended that temporary contract, work shift and part time had positive effect performance hence should be adopted. Further research is required on flexi time and performance.