The Relationship Between Job Description and Employee Performance; A Case Study of Postal Corporation of Kenya

TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION: .................................................................................................................. ii APPROVAL ......................................................................................................................... iii ACIZNOWLEDGMENT ...................................................................................................... .iv ACRONYMS .......................................................................................................................... v TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................................... vi LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................ viii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................. ixi ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................... x

CHAPTER ONE ................................................................................................................... l 1.0 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 1 1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY ................................................................................. 1 1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT ............................................................................................... 2 1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY ...................................................................................... 2 1.3.1 GENERAL OBJECTIVE .............................................................................................. 2 1.3.2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES .............................................................................................. 2 1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS .............................................................................................. 3 1.5 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY ................................................................................ 3 1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ................................................................................. 3 1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY ................................................................................................. 3

CHAPTER TW0 .................................................................................................................. 4 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................. 4 2.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................ 4 2.2 JOB DESCRIPTION ........................................................................................................ 4 2.3 JOB DESCRIPTION PRACTICES .................................................................................. 7 2.4 IMPONTANCE OF JOB DESCRIPTION ....................................................................... 9 2.5 EMPLOYEES ATTITUDES ON THEIR JOB RESPONSIBILITIES .......................... 10 2.6 CHALLENGES EMPLOYEES ARE EXPERIENCING IN EXECUTING THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES ..................................................................................................... 12 2.7 EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE .................................................................................... 14 2.8 EFFECT OF JOB DESCRIPTION ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE ..................... 15

CHAPTER THREE ............................................................................................................ 17 3.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ................................................................................... 17 3.1 OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................... 17 3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN .................................................................................................... 17 3.3 POPULATION ............................................................................................................... 17 3.4 SAMPLING .................................................................................................................... 17 3.5 DATA COLLECTION TOOLS AND METHODS ....................................................... 18 3.6 DATA ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES .............................................................................. 18

CHAPTER FOUR .............................................................................................................. 19 4.0 DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION ................................................................ 19 4.1. INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 19

Vl

4.1.1 BACKGROUND INFORMATION ........................................................................... 19 4.1.2 Staff experience ........................................................................................................... 21 4.1.3 Age distribution of the staff.. ....................................................................................... 22 4.1.4 Distribution of staff by gender. .................................................................................... 24 4.2 Responses to whether the company has a job description .............................................. 24 4.3 Response on relevant and adequacy of job description .................................................. 26 4.4 Job desc1iption practices ................................................................................................. 27 4.5 Response of employee attitude towards their responsibilities ........................................ 28 4.6 Do employees have any challenge in the organization? ................................................. 30 4.7 Challenges ...................................................................................................................... 31 4.8 Effect of these challenges on employee performance .................................................... 31 4.9 Effects of job description on performance ..................................................................... 31 4.10 Other factors apart from job description that improve on perf01mance ....................... 33 4.11 Relationships between job description and employee perfOimance ............................. 33 4.12 Does the decision to use job description improve on organization performance? ....... 35 4.13 Employee perceptions on job description ..................................................................... 35 4.14 Do the organization revise job description? ................................................................ 36

CHAPTER FIVE ................................................................................................................ 37 5.0 DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION .................................... 37 5.1. DISCUSSION OF THE FINDINGS ............................................................................. 37 5.1.1 Job description practices .............................................................................................. 37 5 .1.2 Employees attitude towards their responsibility .......................................................... 3 8 5.1.3 Challenges employees face when executing their responsibilities ............................. .40 5.1.4 Effect of job description on employee perfonnance .................................................. .41 5.2 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................. 42 5.2.1 Job description practices ............................................................................................. .42 5.2.2 Employees' attitude towards their responsibility ....................................................... .42 5.2.3 Challenges employees face when executing their responsibilities ............................. .43 5.2.4 Effect of job description on employee performance .................................................. .44 5.3 RECOMMENDATIONS ................................................................................................ 44 4.4 AREAS OF FURTHER STUDIES ............................................................................... .47

REFERENCES ................................................................................................................... 48

APPENDICES

APPENDIX I ..................................................................... Questionnaire

APPENDIX II ...................................................................... Budget

APPENDIX III .................................................................... Activity Schedule

APPENDIX IV ................................................................... Map ofKenya

ABSTRACT

Human resources are the most dynamic of all the organization's resources. They need considerable attention from the organization's management if they have to realize their full potential in their work. Job description is a management function that cannot be overlooked in any organizations .The success of any organization depends on various factors like tasks and responsibilities that are to be unde11aken in order to achieve the objectives and goals of the organization. The organization therefore has to identify the tasks and responsibilities under each given job and this leads to the establishment of a job description. Job descriptions are taken to be statements of the tasks, duties, objectives, standards and the environment of the job. In recent years, however some managers have avoided using job descriptions in their organizations, believing that the practice encourages employees to behave as if the jobs were their personal property, thus limiting management ability to deploy workers flexibility in different work roles according to needs. Although management has embarked on the services to the employees, performance within the organization has not improved significantly because there has been duplication of activities and responsibilities thus leading to confusion, delays, enors and overlap of roles. It is for this reason therefore that the organization must cany out accurate job description in order to assist in selection, recruitment and placement of the right employees. Job description helps the organization managers to recognize weakness in the organization structure for instance where overlapping areas of authority for example where two or more manager are responsible for the same area. This project sought to identify job description practices in organizations and it focused on Postal services in Kenya. It aimed at detennining employees' attitude towards their responsibilities, challenges employees are facing while executing their responsibilities and the effect of job description on perfmmance. In order to conduct the study, the postal corporation of Kenya along Kenyatta A venue in Nairobi, Kenya was identified to be used as benchmark to the other corresponding postal institution.The study was conducted in Nairobi through May to June 2007 where the research was based on a survey design that was caiTied throughout the organization targeting employees on the effects of job description on employee perfom1ance. This enabled the researcher obtain a better understanding of the performance of pck and its job description practices allowing comprehensive and intensive data collection, providing an in-depth study on relationship between job description and perfonnances  Appropriate measures were identified that could be adopted by managers while fonnulating job description for their organizations and hence efficiency and effectiveness of employees in there organization.