Effects of drug abuse on the performance of employees in kenyan public universities: A case of Maasai Mara University

Abstract

In the current dynamic and highly competitive environment, employee performance is key to achievement of competitive advantage for organizations. Maasai Mara University has been facing employee performance challenges as reflected in employee absenteeism, poor time management and low quality of services offered. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of drug abuse on the performance of employees in Kenyan Public Universities; A case of Maasai Mara University. The specific objectives of the study were: to find out the types of drugs abused by employees and the reasons for the abuse; to determine the effect of drug abuse on employee rate of absenteeism; to investigate the effect of drug abuse on employee time management; to find out the effect of drug abuse on quality of services offered by employees; and to examine effective ways of managing drug abuse in the University. The study was guided by the addictive experiences theory and a conceptual framework which depicted drug abuse as influencing employee performance. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. The target population was 540 permanent employees of the university. Education and psychological measurement table of Krejcie and Morgan (1970) as cited by Kasomo, (2006) was used to determine study sample of 217 employees. Simple random sampling was used to select the sample from the lecturers and support staff while management staff were picked purposively. Reliability of the instruments was confirmed using Cronbatch’s Alpha Coefficient based on a pilot study data. This gave a reliability of 0.81. Expert opinions, literature searches and pre-testing of open-ended questions were used to examine content validity and faced validity. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire, interview schedule and focus group discussions. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics while qualitative data analysis was based on commonly occurring themes in the data based on research questions. Quantitative results were presented using frequency tables and percentages. Further, Pearson correlation analysis was used to test the hypotheses of the study and Regression analysis was employed to test the relationships in the study. The study found that the most abused drug was alcohol supported by 189 (87.1%) of the respondents while the remaining 28(12.9%) indicated tobacco or cigarettes. The reason given for engaging in drug abuse included experimenting, peer pressure, to feel good, recreation, self-medication and loneliness. Furthermore, the study findings indicated that drug abuse affects employee rate of absenteeism in the university. The results of the study also showed that drug abuse affects employee time management through lack of concentration, work place conflicts and drinking during working hours. 187 (86.2%) of the respondents indicated that drug abuse affects quality of services while 30(13.8%) did not agree. Effective ways of managing drugs included rehabilitating drug addicts, disciplining the culprits, educating employees on dangers of drugs and formulating policies related to drug abuse. The study concluded that drug abuse at the university is a notable problem as it is a major cause of absenteeism, affects time management and the quality of services. The study recommended psychosocial support measures such as employee counseling as remedies to drug abuse. The study suggested that further research should be done on employees’ inter-relationship and the role of NACADA in providing information about drug abuse.