Political skill, organizational citizenship behaviour, commitment and performance among employees in selected Universities in Kenya

Abstract

The subject of employee performance has been dynamic in recent time to the development and execution of organization’s strategies. Universities in Kenya are faced with uncertain deviations in employee political skill, commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour. Previous studies on employee performance particularly in less developed countries have revealed that low performance in institutions and other sectors is caused by aspects like uncommitted employees and other strategic human resource factors such as employee political skills which might compromise the performance especially the quality of services offered. However, there are few empirical studies in Kenya that show the effect of employee political skill, employee commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour on employee performance among employees. This study therefore, endeavoured to establish the effect of employee political skill, commitment, organizational citizenship behaviour and performance among employees in selected universities in Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were: to determine the direct effect of employee political skill on employee commitment, employee commitment on employee performance, political skill on employee performance and mediating effect of employee commitment on relationship between employee political skill and employee performance, moderation role of organizational citizenship behaviour and further moderated mediation of organizational citizenship behaviour on the indirect relationship between employee political skill and employee performance through employee commitment in selected universities in Kenya. The study was grounded on social influence theory as the main theory, complimented by social exchange and organizational support theories. The study was based on positivism paradigm and used explanatory research design and systematic sampling on a target population of 6147 employees in selected universities in Kenya. A sample size of 567 university workers was selected based on Yamane’s formula. The reliability of the data collection instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha while factor analysis test construct validity. Study hypotheses were tested at a .05 significant effect. The study findings revealed that Employee Political skill had a positive and significant effect on Employee commitment (β=.812, p =. 000, R-sq = .510); Employee commitment and employee performance (β=.466, p = 000); Employee political skill on employee performance (β=.467, p = 000); all with p-values of less than .05. Further, findings showed that there is significant mediation effect of Employee Commitment (BootLLCI=.27, BootULCI=.48, R-sq=.685). Additionally, findings showed that there is a positive and significant moderating effect of Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (BootLLCI=.235, BootULCI=.445, R-sq change =.02) on the relationship between employee political skill and employee performance through Employee Commitment. More so, Moderated mediation effect was clearly revealed by (BootLLCI=.494, BootULCI=.827). Conclusively, Employee commitment and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour significantly affect the relationship between Employee Political skill and Employee Performance. The study recommends leaders in institutions to instil the resource of employee political skill through a blend of employee commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour so as to strategically enrich performance among employees. Additionally, it calls for the extension of this research on the used theories on this topic by using other methods like longitudinal and other approaches in variety of sectors with a global view.