ABSTRACT

Competition in the banking sector has been increasing globally, hence, implementation of learning organization becomes a key focus in any organization. Research indicates that employees play a major role in the banking sectors and they are the determinants of customer retention. Hence employee performance is a key issue that most banking sectors look upon. Studies have indicated that most banks perform poorly in terms of ensuring that the performance of their employees is high hence facing high employee turnover rates. Kiambu County, Equity banks is among the many commercial banks present and also the mostly used at Kiambu County and outside residents due to its diversity. However, Equity Bank at Kiambu have experienced long term challenge pertaining employees. The persistent problem necessitated the research to analyze the effect of learning organization on employee performance in Kiambu County, Kenya. The research was directed by five objectives namely; to investigate the effect of learning culture, shared vision, personal mastery, strategic leadership, and innovation on the employee performance in Kiambu County, Kenya. The research underpinned on four theories, that is, transformative learning theory, social cultural learning theory, Goal theory, and Watkins and Marsicks theory. Transformative learning theory was the main domain theory, which helped the researcher to understand the interrelation among study variables such as learning culture, shared vision, personal mastery, strategic leadership, and innovation. The study employed descriptive research design. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques was used in the selection of the study respondents in the three categories; branch manager, human personnel and bank clerks. A sample size of 70 respondents was drawn from a target population of 12 Equity banks found in Kiambu County. Semi-structured questionnaires were presented to the participants in order to collect primary data and later analyzed using SPSS for inferential and descriptive statistics. Regression and correlation analyses were run to determine and explain the degree of relationship between the predictor and dependent variables. But before regression analysis, diagnostic test which includes normality test and multicollinearity were run. Additionally, qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. Descriptive results indicated that Equity banks in Kiambu County did not fully embrace learning culture, shared vision, personal mastery, strategic leadership, and fostered innovation. The correlation analysis showed that all the independent variables and the dependent variable had a positive and significant that is learning culture (r=0. 407, p= 0.000), shared vision (r= 0. 260, p=0.030), personal mastery (r = 0.511, p= 0.000), strategic leadership (r =0.408, p=0.000, and innovation (r = 0.301, p= 0.011). Regression analysis revealed that learning culture had a significantly positive effect on the employee performance (β=0.092, p=0.049). Shared vision had have positive and significant on the employee performance (β=0.327, p=0.008). Personal mastery indicated a significant positive influence on the employee performance (β=0.567, p=0.001). Strategic leadership had a positive and significant influence on employee performance (β=0.246, p=0.028) while innovation had a positively significant impact on the employee performance at the Equity banks in Kiambu County (β=0.127, p=0.033). This study recommends that Equity banks in Kiambu County should continue to encourage learning culture, shared vision, personal mastery, strategic leadership, and fostered innovation to achieve employee performance. 1 CHAPTER ON