DO EMPLOYEES WORK LIFE POLICIES AND EMPOWERMENT STRATEGIES DRIVE EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT? EVIDENCE FROM KENYAN REFERRAL HOSPITAL, SYNERGY EFFECT (Published)
Employees with strong organizational commitment are emotionally attached to the organization and have a strong desire to contribute significantly towards organizational success. The importance of individual commitment to the bottom line of the organization is highly essential for improved performance, higher employee loyalty, increased satisfaction and customer satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to answer the question does employee work life policies and empowerment strategies drive employee commitment? The study employed a case study research design that was conducted at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital. The target population was three thousand two hundred (3200) respondents targeted because it was the right respondents in the organisation. A sample size of 340 employees was extracted from the target population using stratified sampling for the departments and simple random sampling for the individual respondents. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (Software).The cronbach’s alpha reliability obtained was 0.623. Multiple regression analyses were used to test the hypotheses. Based on the observed correlation results, work life policies was the strongest predictor of employee commitment (β = 0.300, t=5.670, p< 0.01), followed by employee empowerment (β = 0.154, t=2.820, p<0.01), the findings indicated that there was a significant positive correlation between employee work life policies ,strategy and affective commitment (r=0.317, p<0.01); normative commitment (r=0.329, p<0.01); and continuance commitment (r=0.328, p<0.01) the study also established that there was a significant positive correlation between employee empowerment and affective commitment (r=0.186, p<0.01); normative commitment (r=0.194, p<0.01); and continuance commitment (r=0.188, p<0.01). The study recommends that MTRH lays down proper structures for enhancing employee commitment since as seen from the study employee work life and empowerment drives employee commitment
Keywords: Employee Commitment, and empowerment, work life policies