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.